


What A Lovely Nightmare

by ChingKittyCat



Series: Mirrored [5]
Category: Hoshi no Kaabii | Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, Kirby - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Mirror Universe, Reverse Personalities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-01-03 19:49:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12153606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChingKittyCat/pseuds/ChingKittyCat
Summary: Nightmare comes into possession of Kirby. He has a good idea of what to do with him.-This fic is a sibling fic toWhat A Horrible Dream. The two fics are published in tandem.[Fic Tag]





	1. Day 0

    The power stars encircled him, then shot off into the void. The space rippled like waves, light emitted from the star's energy. It turned bright, blinding, almost. He didn't cover his eyes. He had done this ritual so many times now that the light show had lost all of its marvelous splendor for him. He didn't care if it blinded him, especially not now. No, especially not now.  
    The light grew and took shape, fading to show what he had summoned. The wish granting comet known as Nova. Blue in face, with strange red tinted objects jutting out from its sides, the cat-faced clock took a second to open its big, mechanical eyes. It took less than a second for those eyes to decipher what stood before it, then for them to narrow in a mixture of fury and hatred.  
    "YOU AGAIN. <..."  
    It hissed, letting its animosity show. His hands fumbled slightly within his cloak. He broke eyecontact almost instantly, as if he were a child who had done something wrong. Which, honestly, wasn't far from it.   
    "HOW MANY TIMES, NIGHTMARE, DO YOU HAVE TO SUMMON ME BEFORE YOU GET THE PICTURE? I'M NOT GOING TO GRANT YOUR WISH. ANY OF YOUR WISHES. NO MATTER WHAT THEY ARE, I WILL NOT GIVE YOU ANYTHING YOU WANT. <..."  
    It growled. It was the sixteenth time now— yes, he kept count— that he had summoned Nova. He would track down the power stars to every solar system Nova would hide them, retrieve them, summon the cat only for it to hiss at him and run off. Nightmare was dedicated. That's probably the only good quality he had.  
    "Please.. Please just h-hear me out once.."  
    He could barely bring himself to mutter his plea. He was pathetic, he knew he was, and sometimes he wished he'd still had some pride left in him. That way he didn't sound so sad when he just wanted to ask Nova to hear him.  
    "HEAR YOU OUT?!"  
    The screech tore through him and instantly broke his hands into trembling.  
    "OH YES, LET ME JUST HEAR OUT THE GREATEST GENOCIDER OF RECENT HISTORY. LET ME HEAR WHAT HE WANTS TO SAY. I DEFINITELY, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT WANT TO LISTEN TO WHATEVER VILE FILTH COMES OUT OF HIS MOUTH! DO YOU HEAR YOURSELF WHEN YOU SPEAK!? DO YOU NOT KNOW WHO YOU ARE, NIGHTMARE!? I KNOW BETTER THAN TO ASSOCIATE MYSELF WITH YOU, MUCH LESS LET YOU WISH ON ME! <..."  
    "I-"  
    "BE QUIET! <..."  
    And he was. His throat had shut itself on command, and he could no longer bring himself to speak other than through small, choked noises. He wanted to protest, he just wanted to say what he wanted. No, not what he wanted. What he needed. What everyone needed.  
    "YOU DISGUST ME. YOU COME TO ME THINKING, 'OH I CAN JUST GET RID OF ALL MY PROBLEMS BY WISHING ON NOVA YIPPEE'! YOU WANT TO GET OFF SCOT-FREE FOR EVERYTHING. FOR EVERYTHING YOU'VE EVER DONE. FOR ALL THE TERROR YOU'VE INSTILLED, FOR ALL THE LIVES YOU'VE RUINED, FOR ALL THE PLANETS YOU'VE DESTROYED. <..."  
    Don't cry. Don't cry. He couldn't move. His hands were trembling but paralyzed.  
    "YOU COULD WISH FOR EVERYTHING TO BE RESOLVED AND I WOULDN'T GRANT IT. I WOULDN'T. YOU KNOW WHY? BECAUSE I KNOW WHAT THE MEMORIES OF THOSE THINGS DOES TO YOU. AND HONESTLY, NIGHTMARE, YOU DESERVE EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF IT. <..."  
    Don't cry.  
    "NOTHING WOULD MAKE ME HAPPIER THAN WATCHING YOU LIKE THIS UNTIL THE END OF THE UNIVERSE. NO AMOUNT OF PITY FISHING IS GOING TO CHANGE THAT FACT. YOU DISGUST ME. EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU  **REVOLTS** ME. <..."  
    Don't cry.  
    "YOU ARE A DISGUSTING WASTE OF LIFE WHO HAS DONE NOTHING IN HIS EXISTENCE BUT HURT OTHERS, NOW YOU COME TO ME ASKING FOR PEACE OF MIND? <..."  
    He was crying.   
    "HOW DARE YOU THINK YOU DESERVE IT. HOW DARE YOU. SO HEAR ME, YOU HORRIBLE, WORTHLESS  **THING**. STOP. SUMMONING. ME.  <..."  
    Nova, in the blink of an eye, was gone. Nightmare curled inwards onto himself, his hands horribly shaky and incapable. He held them to his face as if he were shielding someone from seeing them. Yet, there was no one here. No one except him, his escort, a few planets, and the void of space. His escort— an autonomous Destraya— was not fully thinking enough to judge him for crying. It was also not fully thinking enough to comfort him.   
    His hands fell back down uselessly. He cried. He'd cried a lot 'today'. As soon as he had woken up back on the fortress, he was crying. His sadness drove him to collect the stars in a frenzy, and his emotions had overtook him in a blind state. They took him over now, in deep sadness that allowed no thought, and what little thought there was only intensified his tears.  
    He just wanted to forget. He wanted to forget all of it. He wanted the ability, the permission to forget. He knew the spell, he knew how to erase memories. He was just unable to do it on himself. Not because he was too cowardly, no. He found out the hard way that the magic simply refused to turn on its user.  
    He whimpered. His nails dug deep as they possibly could into his palms as he rolled them into fists, trying to fight something that didn't exist. His tears? His sadness? Something? The effect of Nova's words, that's what they were trying to fight. He had already heard words ever so similar to them during the previous 'night'. These new ones just pushed him further down the rabbithole of misery.  
    Get over yourself. You deserve it. You deserve it, every second of it.   
    The words came to him, making him puff slightly, still shaking. He wiped his face with his unsteady metal hands. He gave a 'minute' or so to calm himself down, though he was clearly still troubled. A few more stray tears to fall down his face, a few more sniffles, then he motioned to his escort. Silent, the disk shaped ship moved into position, simply waiting for him.  
    He gave himself a moment, just staring at the ship. Blank. Long, long and hard, before he snapped back to reality. He had prepared to shrink himself down, to climb inside the ship for it to transport him back to the fortress at speeds far, far faster than light. That is, of course, when something caught his face.  
    That is to say, quite literally, something smashed him so hard on the side of the face it would've removed his head from his body had he not been held together by magic. It collided with him so hard that his glasses, made of the best and most durable lenses he could conjure, cracked from the impact. The pain was nonexistant for the moment, then as soon as he had found his bearings, he felt it.   
    The thing that had hit him took a much bigger beating than he did. He saw the way the starship looked as it drifted away slowly from him. Much less to say, it was no longer fit to travel through space. Was it through cause of his own, by having it smack into him that it had become so unfit? He wouldn't doubt it. He destroyed everything.   
    He would've rubbed the side of his face if he didn't hear a familiar hiss of pressurized air leaking into the void of space. He had gasped to himself, doing the magic gestures quickly. They burned his hands, doing them, but he didn't care. When he finished the spell a bubble appeared between his palms which he hurriedly surrounded the ship with.  
    Nightmare sighed. Relief. Guilt. Mostly guilt from the fact that he could've potentially caused the passing of whatever may be in that ship. What an odd looking thing it was, really. It was taking the whole idea of a 'starship' quite literally with its design. It even took on the same blue color as the Star Rod once did. He could feel his face instinctively pale.  
    He shook it off. Taking one of his hands off of the bubble, he gestured for the Destraya. It came as commanded, and recognized the damaged ship without any further inputs. A simple tractor beam, a few grabbing robotic hands and the much smaller ship was loaded up into the white and yellow larger one. Nightmare only allowed the air bubble to pop as soon as he heard the click of the Destraya's ship holding bay doors.  
    He poked at the crack in his glasses. It wasn't very big. He wasn't going to fix it. There really was no need to. There were more important things to do than worry over his glasses. He tracked where the little ship was going. A simple look told him that the starship was heading towards that dull blue star. Popstar. Home of..   
    Nightmare rubbed the place that had been hit by the ship. He wasn't about to heal himself over such a minor bang. It would be fine to just load up and go back to the fortress, report his failure, work a little bit, then sleep.  
    Shrinking himself down, he teleported into some of the nicer bits of the Destraya. The parts he had made to be the most lit up. The most friendly, soft looking parts of the ship.   
    "Back to the fortress.."  
    There, he would relax as everything autopiloted. Well, relax as much as one can while going three hundred fifty-nine million, two hundred eighty-two thousand, seven hundred times the speed of light. Sometimes it got a little bit bumpy.  
  
    The Destraya had docked itself at the repair bay, unloading the cargo, including himself. With that, it had headed off towards its own designated docking stations for further use. Nightmare's head still spun slightly as he held onto a nearby metal pole, trying to anchor himself with something. The dizziness faded as quickly as it had came, thankfully.  
    A quick glance around told him that a trading ship had been found by one of the scouting Destrayas and had been docked here as well. He'd have to get to that eventually. Maybe tomorrow.  
    Nightmare watched as the recently retrieved blue ship was grabbed by the little hands of the certain dock it was placed into. They held the ship in place, grabbing it like they were the hands of curious little toddlers, exploring each edge and point. Once the grips were settled, the hands lowered themselves with clicks. The repair process was automatic, he just needed to be here to tell the repair to start.  
    He glided over to the dock's terminal. It turned on and buzzed with light at his approach, screen shining with symbols and figures only he properly knew how to use. He did design it, after all. He brushed his hand over the screen before beginning his inputs.  
    "Welcome home, sir."  
    Nightmare hummed at the voice, stopping his movements. A tile in the ceiling moved itself off to the side as a television, suspended by a long wire, moved like a snake to look at him. On the screen, the well dressed (dark yellow in fashion) business man that he had given life to oh so long ago smiled at him. A pleasant smile. A smile that said 'I got what I wanted'.  
    "Thank you, CS."  
    It was nice to see the man. He was all Nightmare had allowed himself for company, other than the Destrayas. But they didn't exactly talk, so they didn't really count.  
    "Nova didn't go well?"  
    Such a bold one, CS was. Willing to taunt and question his creator. Not that Nightmare minded it, of course. He was fine with being questioned, especially moreso nowadays. A lot moreso.  
    "You already know."  
    CS's face shifted slightly. He gave that look of apprehension and slight annoyance. From the floor, a clawed hand (much like Nightmare's own in design) attached by a similarly moveable wire as the television, wormed its way up to Nightmare's face.  
    "Sir. You're hurt."  
    A simple touch of the area was enough to get him to wince. He pulled himself away from the mechanical limb slightly. It moved back, downwards from the effected area. It didn't retract fully into the floor, however. CS crossed his arms. There was a noise from the dock.  
    "Heal yourself and tell me how you got hurt, sir. If that clock somehow managed to-"  
    "No, no, Nova didn't hurt me. Just an asteroid, I assure you."  
    CS was not exactly the most.. Emotionally hiding type. If something made the man mad, you knew it made him mad. He made sure to tell on every single level that he was absolutely livid. With other emotions, he was much more controlled. Anger was really the only one he had problems with. It was never, ever directed at Nightmare, but it still concerned the wizard anyways. He didn't wish anyone to face the full brunt of CS's mother-like rage.   
    CS gave him a look. Then, as if he were defeated, he let out a puff, letting his arms fall back down again.  
    "Sir, please heal yourself."  
    Nightmare did as he was asked of, despite how much he didn't exactly desire to. The simple movements were childs-play. Soon enough the bright cyan smoke-like substance of healing magic flowed from his palms. He held one to the bruise, while the other went back to the terminal. A few more inputs..  
    Wait.   
    Nightmare looked over to the ship. Yes, he had heard something. The metal that had covered the center of the ship like a ball had crumpled and fallen off of the blue star. Now, the underneath could be seen. Glass. Glass that told Nightmare everything about the ship's contents.  
    Said contents seemed to stir as soon as he had glanced at them. A Batamon, grey. Deep, deep grey. Heroic. Its starry eyes blinked, then cringed from the light of the room. The glass slid back as the little creature hopped up and out of its ship. It stood on one of the arms of its ship that wasn't as badly damaged. Nightmare's eyes, behind his glasses, widened in shock.   
    "Kirby..!?"  
    He muttered. The recognition was instant. Nightmare had seen a lot of this little puff within the dreams he created. Kirby was such a focal point for happiness, for hope.. Now, here he was. In the fortress. Nightmare felt he must've blacked for a second, because one moment the little tot was on his ship's arm, next second he was tugging on the sorcerer's torn cape. He ceased his magic usage.  
    Nightmare picked up the Batamon, careful. He floated the little thing back to his starship, hoping to get Kirby to sit back down and go back to sleep. However, with each time Nightmare tried, Kirby would get back up.   
    "Poyo.."  
    Kirby murmured, standing back up from the sat down position he was placed in for the fourth time. Kirby seemed to be concerned with some problem that Nightmare was currently unaware of.  
    "No, Kirby, you need to go back to bed, okay..? Your ship will be fixed, and you'll be back on your way to Popstar before you know it."  
    Nightmare's deep voice sounded admittingly strange (at least to him) while he cooed. Like, you wouldn't exactly expect someone who sounded like him to be saying such things in such a soft tone.  
    Kirby did not seem to like what he was saying. In fact, Kirby didn't like what he was saying so much to the point where the toddler's face scrunched in such a way that Nightmare was most familiar with. The grey Batamon sniffed, his eyes threatening to start some waterworks. Nightmare twitched at the sight, at the thought of having made Kirby cry. It shot him through his figurative heart.  
    Scooping the tot up, he made the utmost caution. Kirby, he knew, was not delicate whatsoever, but he felt as if one wrong move could break the toddler into a million tiny pieces— like a pane of glass.  
    "I won't hurt you, this place is safe, it's okay.."  
    He continued, rubbing the top of Kirby's head with one of his fingers. Kirby had relaxed from his previous state, lifting up his spirits considerably. Kirby's smile was a cute one.  
    "He's playing you like a fiddle, sir."  
    CS advised, not hiding his chuckles. Nightmare was more than aware.  
    "CS," He stopped petting Kirby's head, "activate the ship repair. Kirby will be staying with us— outside of his ship— until it's done."  
    If CS could brighten up more than he did right then, Nightmare was unsure. The television retracted itself into the walls, same with the stray arm. A couple of automatic beeps and boops graced him, then the hiss of the repair process just beginning. Always so satisfying.  
    A simple grip of one side of his tattered cape, then flinging it over himself, proved to teleport him exactly where he desired to be. The area of the fortress where he had planned only the highest of the high employees to have access to. But, well, since there weren't exactly any employees, the area was kinda just for him. He'd only ever used two rooms in the area; one for work and the other for sleep.  
    The other rooms were planned to be work rooms, board rooms, other such things that a business would need. In fact, there was even a large cafeteria just down the hallway. It was boisterously large, in fact. Much more impractical than anything, but he had prepared for any number of workers when he built the fortress. Just that one room alone was more than capable of holding hundreds of thousands of individuals comfortably.  
    Kirby wouldn't need a huge room, he deduced. The puff was only staying for one 'night' anyways. That's what Nightmare said, at least. Shrinking himself further (to the point where he now had to hold Kirby with both hands in order to keep him from falling on the floor), he approached one of many doors in the hall. Pressing a few electronic buttons on the screen next to the frame, the doors slid open to reveal the empty inside.   
    He deposited Kirby within before floating into the room himself. He figured to himself. He thought of what typical bedrooms looked like, remembering..  
    Doing a few small gestures, he summoned a bed with a pink blanket, two pillows, and pushed it comfortably near towards the corner. A dresser came next, then an endtable. A vanity, a closet. A little rug. Yes, the room was decorated with furniture of impeccable manufacturing. All bright, vibrant, much like the walls. Nothing that hurt the eyes, nothing dark enough to frighten.   
    Kirby was entranced by the way he could just pull things out of thin air, then place the things as if they were weightless. Kirby got onto his 'tippy-toes', waving his stubs at the man as he finished his conjuring.   
    "Poyo, poyo!"  
    As soon as the Batamon had his attention, Kirby went over and poked at the bed's blanket. Kirby pushed his face into the soft fabric unceremoniously, then looked back for the wizard's approval. Honestly, it did make him smile a bit. Had he been miserable looking the entire time? He didn't even notice. Kirby's face perked up from getting the reaction he wanted.  
    "It's late, you should go to bed, alright? In the uh.. Morning, your ship will be fixed."  
    Kirby held a toothless smile and nodded, climbing onto the bed with a bit of trouble. Kirby just laid ontop of the covers, belly up. A strange way to sleep indeed. With a simple movement of Nightmare's fingers, the lights dimmed to a comfortable setting. Not too dark to be pitch black, still lit enough to see everything in the room. He let himself out, the doors sliding closed behind him.  
    Well, that was that.   
    He took a second to grapple with the fact that Kirby was on the fortress. That Kirby was staying here, underneath his hospitality, for a 'night'. He had seen the little puff in so many of  _his_  dreams, dreams of what the galaxy would be like if it were at peace. Kirby was always there. Kirby, warrior of The Stars. Antithesis of all things wretched and evil. Concentrated purity. A light in the dark.   
    Nightmare grew back to a decent size of five feet from the near foot tall height. Looking for all of the power stars and talking to Nova had taken some energy out of him, but he still could work. He guided himself towards his work room, its large doors opening for him automatically.  
    The room was large, square. Nondescript. Nothing except a couple of large televisions, terminals lined with buttons along the sides, and obviously moving panels in the walls, floor, and ceiling. This room was one that CS had the least amount of power over. It was all fully automated, manual processes. He had made sure to keep everything in this room very practical and not hooked up to the computer whatsoever. Nothing except the televisions.  
    The televisions flicked on. White backgrounds, black text. Simple pictures. They were orders. Requests for monsters. The flow of work never stopped for a second. Nightmare had made sure that it never stopped, as work was one of the few things he did that could keep his mind off all the things that rattled him. He could zone out, just focusing on the act of summoning things. Of creation.  
    So, he started. He let himself relax and just work. Just do the gestures. Think about the monsters. The 'DemonBeasts', as customers called them and CS learned to advertise them. The soft colors of fur and scales, the somewhat odd choice of palettes he had selected.. Watching his little monsters be taken off by metal hands which then retracted into the walls, appearing seconds later empty and waiting, seeing the removal of a request from one of the televisions..  
    The words from last night echoed in his brain. Loud, sudden. Horrible and repeating. It wasn't enough to get him to stop what he was doing immediately, but it was enough to make him cringe. The words stabbed at him, over and over again. Suddenly, he had lost all his motivation to work. He wanted to sleep, but the simple idea of going to sleep, of returning to  _him_  after last night, it made him feel so crushingly horrible.  
    The loss of motivation pushed on his armored shoulders like a weight. It only made him think about the conversation more. The entirely one sided conversation. It was more like a lecture, a scolding. How it'd made him cry so easily, how each reinforced syllable was like poison.  _He_ certainly had a way around his words.. Nightmare huffed, rubbing at his eyes like he were tired.  
    Nightmare would sleep. He would just take a break for a while from trying to redeem himself. Provide some dreams to other people. Ah, Kirby could probably use a dream. Yes, that'd be fine.  
    He moved from his workstation, his hands dropping back to the insides of his open cape. Leading himself through the empty halls to the equally empty room he called his own. No furniture, no bed, he slept on the floor. There was no need for comfort, his cape provided enough. His entire body was basically magic, so there were no sore necks from this practice.  
    Laying down on and sleeping his side was a somewhat difficult skill, what with his horns. He managed, though. Now, it was just the matter of forcing himself to sleep. He didn't need to go to sleep to be productive, but he did so anyways.  
    He felt like he was about to doze off when he heard his room's door open. He sat up in such a way where he wasn't totally up from his laid position, blinking his eyes to open. Oh. Kirby.  
    "Is something wrong..?"  
    He questioned, soft. Kirby waddled over to Nightmare as quickly as his little feet could take him. He found his place next to the hand Nightmare had put somewhat outstretched (palm up) on the ground. Kirby struggled to climb ontop of it. As soon as he managed, Kirby grasped onto the base of Nightmare's thumb and nuzzled his face into it.  
    "Don't like sleeping alone, huh..?"  
    He deduced it easily. Kirby looked towards him, nodding before settling. Nightmare gave a comforting smile, shrinking himself down to two and a half feet. Big enough for Kirby to fit in his hand and reach for all the fingers fairly easily. It seemed like Kirby appreciated it, snuggling up to the wizard's thumb even moreso. Well.. Now he couldn't move his hand. He wasn't allowed to.  
    The puff's breathing was relaxed. He had a little smile upon his round face as he cuddled the hand that had remorselessly slaughtered millions.


	2. Day 1

    Nightmare stirred the next day to the sound of doors opening and closing. He groaned, sitting up and lazily looking towards the source of the noise. He figured it to be a malfunction on the door's part, detecting something that didn't exist. He grumbled, pushing himself up from the metal ground to go inspect for whatever damages his room's doors had.  
    There was no malfunction. Instead, Kirby had just somehow had managed to stick himself to the ninety degree angle doorframe's manual 'OPEN DOOR' screen and was smashing all the buttons on it. Just then, Kirby began to slip from the wall, plummeting downwards into Nightmare's open palm. Kirby smacked the hand back first with a 'poyo'. He recovered fairly quickly, though, getting up and waving at the wizard. Nightmare almost had to squint to see the little puff properly.  
    Oh. He'd changed heights in his sleep. Of course. No wonder Kirby was so small in his hand, Nightmare'd grown to ten feet. A simple shrink made the interaction more comfortable. Well, Kirby didn't seem to mind what height the wizard was, but it still worried the man that he'd appear too intimidating if he was gigantic all the time.  
    "Kirby," he sounded tired, "you'll hurt yourself if you do things like that. Some buttons around here are very, very dangerous.."  
    Nightmare didn't know why he was warning Kirby about the dangers Nightmare'd programmed into certain buttons of the fortress. It's not like Kirby was going to be staying for very long. The repair process would be done by now, all Nightmare would have to do is bring Kirby back to the bay, then send the grey puff on his way.  
    With a swish of the Dimensional Cape, that's exactly what Nightmare did. He'd appeared in the bay, Kirby in hand. However, there was something slightly amiss. Kirby's starship, to be precise. The dock that had previously held the ship was now completely empty. The trader ship he'd noted yesterday was still locked tight, so he doubted anyone had come out and taken it.  
    "CS."  
    A small call and the televised salesman appeared. Nightmare was always proud of how he'd manage to get the tubes hooked to the tv screens CS used to be so flexible and able to move however they needed to. Nightmare certainly knew how much CS liked to move them around. It provided a bit of mobility for him compared to the mounted tvs, which were much less exciting.  
    CS loved drama, and apparently being able to drop a tv with his smug face on it down from the ceiling at a moments notice was fairly dramatic.  
    "Yes?"  
    CS answered, innocent as ever.  
    "Where is Kirby's ship?"  
    CS moved his glasses further up his highres face then shrugged, hands turning outwards. Nightmare's frown deepened out of annoyance. Was CS really going to do this? Really? Now?  
    "Kirby has to leave, CS. Whether you agree with it or-"  
    "Poyno!"  
    Kirby called out from Nightmare's hand, waving his little stubs around frantically. It didn't matter if he wanted to stay, he just couldn't. It was wrong to keep him here when he was clearly headed for Popstar. Kirby deserved to be where he belonged, not with Nightmare.   
    "CS, where did you put his ship?"  
    "Poyno! Poyno!!"  
    Kirby was now grabbing onto Nightmare's fingers. The desperate tone pained him horribly. It would be better on Popstar, where there were actual halfway decent people. Kirby could go roll in grass and get dirty, breath air and look off into dull blue skies. Here, it was metal. Yes, it was warm since he'd built the heating system decently well, but it probably wasn't going to be very comfortable for a child to live in compared to an actual planet.  
    "CS, his ship. Bring it out."  
    "I'm sorry sir," CS put his hands back down from their outward shrug, "I'm afraid I can't do that."  
    Nightmare puffed. So CS did do something to the ship. Well, without CS's help, it was somewhere nonspecific on a floating hunk of metal that was bigger than the sun it surrounded. CS had the ability to put the ship anywhere he so pleased, and the yellow clad fellow was smart enough to not put it in storage where Nightmare would be easily able to find it.  
    "What's the problem?"  
    CS's tv screen drew near, getting up in Nightmare's face.  
    "I think you know the 'problem' just as well as I do."  
    CS crossed his arms, not waiting for a response.  
    "Kirby made you smile, yesterday, sir. He made you happy. I cannot afford to let you just throw him away into the vastness of space after that. Plus," a robotic hand revealed itself from the floor, snaked its way to Kirby, and tapped the puff on the head, "he doesn't even want to leave. There's no point. All you're doing is hurting yourself."  
    "C-"  
    "You cried your eyes out yesterday, and in my opinion, Kirby may be able to prevent such a thing from happening again. Or, at the very least, stop it from happening every other week."  
    It was almost embarrassing to hear CS say it out loud. The tv gave Nightmare his personal space back. Slightly.  
    "Popstar doesn't even have anyone who can take care of Kirby properly on it."  
    He added, quite sure of himself.  
    "CS, just because you don't like the residents doesn't mean that there isn't a single good person on the entire planet."  
    If CS's eyes were shown, Nightmare was sure they'd be rolling at that.  
    "I'm not bringing out the ship, sir."  
    If CS wasn't going to cooperate, it meant that Nightmare also couldn't use the Destrayas to send Kirby home, since their launch procedure was automated by yellow-clad salesman. Nightmare couldn't just teleport Kirby there either, since the transporters were also controlled by CS to a certain degree. Yes, there were manual switches and controls for the transporters, but CS was more than clever enough to figure out how to lock up the terminals to prevent any transportation he didn't agree with. With a defeated sigh, Nightmare realized his new situation.   
    He wasn't exactly in the mood to have a quarrel. He wasn't even in the mood to talk at all, honestly. He stood silent for a moment before looking down at the grey Batamon still clinging to his fingers. There was something about the little child that made him internally brighten.   
    "Stubborn.." Nightmare muttered, "Alright. He can stay a bit longer, I guess.."  
    Kirby's mood instantly lifted, and the little tot began to poyo happily, unlatching himself from the wizard's digits. There was something that concerned Nightmare, though.  
    The fortress wasn't exactly babyproof, and with Kirby's shown tendencies to go around pushing buttons, Nightmare feared the worst. There were some things on this place that were meant for less than pleasant uses.  
    "CS, close and lock any doors to places that have the potential to hurt Kirby."  
    "Got it, boss."  
    With that, the tv retracted back into the ceiling, and the hand to the floor. Well, now it was just him and Kirby. Actually, that wasn't really true, there were the people on that trading ship over there which he needed to get to. But since they weren't exactly out and about, he didn't count them.  
    "Kirby, if you're going to stay here, you need to understand that you cannot just go around pressing buttons, okay? No matter how shiny or tempting they are."  
    Kirby nodded, a bit abashed by his previous mistake now. He sat.  
    "You can go wherever you want on the fortress, though."  
    The grey Batamon's eyes lit up, removing the previous guilt with childlike wonder. How cute. Kirby's enthusiasm really was a bit contagious to the point where it easily brought a weak smile to his face. A true feat.  
    Holding the little puff close, Nightmare teleported back to the hall that had his workroom and the room where he slept, along with Kirby's dejected fully furnished room. It was a good starting point for exploration, Nightmare'd figured.  
    Putting his hand down, he slid Kirby off of it carefully. The little puff, now sitting on the floor, looked up at him curiously.  
    "I'm, uh, going to be busy with something, so how about you go explore?"  
    Kirby adored that idea. As soon as it was suggested, Kirby got to his feet and got to doing just that. Within the next couple of seconds, Kirby had turned a corner and was gone from Nightmare's sight. What a little ball of energy he was.. With all the precautions taken, Nightmare was sure the little Batamon would be fine under CS's watchful station-wide eye.  
  


* * *

  
  
    What a place! Everything was so shiny, Kirby could even see his own reflection in the walls sometimes! Kirby greeted himself with a wave and a funny face, but that got old by the fifth time he did it. There were other things to be doing other than just looking at himself in whatever reflective metal he came upon.   
    The idea of new places fascinated Kirby. Of mysterious locations, things he hadn't seen, of whatever might be lurking behind corners, just waiting to be discovered. This place had more than plenty of these unknown locations. In fact, it was practically littered with them.  
    Down every hallway he went were doors, and in those doors, there was a room connected. Rooms had things in them. Things are good, and Kirby liked things. Not in a materialistic sort of way, of course not, he just liked to look at stuff then leave it there for others to find. However, there was a problem with his current way of going about things.  
    Most, if not all of the rooms were entirely empty.  
    Every time he came across a room, he'd cross his metaphorical fingers that there would be something inside, only for it to be exactly like the last room. It began to disappoint him. However, just when he thought he would give up, he found a room with furniture or other neat stuff inside.  
    This time he'd hit a real goldmine. It was a room full of chairs. Not any ordinary chairs. Spinny chairs. Chairs that could spin around and also move because they had wheels for feet. Kirby grabbed one by the seat and dragged it out into the hallway.  
    Distinctly remembering a more sloped hall, Kirby barely kept his excited babbling to himself as he pushed the chair throughout the long halls. The clicking of the plastic wheels made him all the more giddy upon the arrival to his destination.  
    The slope wasn't exactly big, but Kirby reasoned it'd be enough to give him some form of motion without having to actually push the chair. Stationing the chair at the brink, Kirby struggled to actually get onto the seat. It took a couple tries and after much effort, he found himself on top of the uncushioned plastic seat. Forcibly scooting forward, and the chair rolled down the ramp.  
    It started off slow at first, but this was a very long corridor. As time went on and on, he lost ground and gained speed. His poyos were ones of enthrallment as he continued to get faster and faster.   
    Though, as the end of the hallway neared, those poyos quickly went from ones of amusement to fear. Too scared to jump off of the chair but also scared to hit the wall, Kirby found himself in a dilemma that his little mind couldn't process due to panic. Kirby was frozen in all places except the mouth, which he used to cry with terror at his own mistake.  
    Just as he thought he was going to slam into the wall, though, he was grabbed off the chair by a familiar grasp. It held him like he were a tangerine. The grey puff watched as the chair rocketed into the wall, breaking itself upon impact. Kirby cringed at the idea of that being him. Good thing he was grabbed by..  
    Hm. Well, it appears like he was grabbed by one of the wall hands that had poked him just a while ago. It placed Kirby safely onto his feet. A panel in the ceiling moved itself as a screen emerged to greet Kirby. It turned on, and it was that other guy from before. CS, that's his name.  
    "Kiddo, listen."  
    Oh boy. He was about to be scolded, wasn't he?  
    "Don't go doing that again. Seriously."  
    With that, the television brought itself back to the ceiling, and the panel moved back like nothing had ever happened. Same with the hand. Well, that wasn't exactly what Kirby was expecting, but at least he didn't get totally scolded.  
    Kirby was alone again. He couldn't go back and do more chair stuff. He was told not to, so he wouldn't. Plus, after seeing what could've happened to him, he was going to stay away from doing any more chair stuff on elongated inclined planes.  
    Further exploration of the identical corridors brought him nothing but disappointment. Empty rooms, halls leading to dead ends, all that jazz. However, at the end of one hall, there were stairs. Kirby, more than curious, ran to the stairs and promptly continued his run upwards. It was a spiral staircase, safety railed and contained platforms and doors to get off at.  
    Kirby wasn't a simpleton who did things halfway. He was going all the way to the top if the exhaustion from running crippled him. By the time he'd reached the top, it did just that. He had to sit down for like, entire minutes before the final door of the staircase before he could even bear to push it open.  
    Kirby found the reward worth it.  
    Inside was a small waiting room, desk, a wall tv behind that desk, chairs, empty pots for plants and all. It was the most furnished room he'd come across thus far, but there was something even more important about the room.  
    It had a window. A large one, in fact. Kirby smacked to the window like a fly to a windshield.  
    The view outside was littered with towers of white, gold with light. The sky above colored itself orange, but did not cast any afternoon shadows on the buildings Kirby saw outside. Like looking upon a mountain range, it never seemed to end. Skyscrapers, smaller buildings, just looking outside at everything mystified Kirby. It was entirely unskewed by fog or any sorts of cloud.  
    The glittering sky, the sheer pastel beauty of it all was really a lot to take in. His eyes sparkled at it. He surely would never forget such a sight for his entire life. The warm colors reminded Kirby of that guy who was letting him stay here. Not only did that guy have the same sort of style when it came to dressing, but his warm demeanor matched the view outside.   
    Kirby knew there was something wrong with his host— and not in a dangerous sense. He felt it in every word the guy muttered, how his shoulders were drawn in, how his smile was horribly shaky and frequently absent. Kirby needed to do something to make him happy, like the puff had done yesterday. Kirby didn't like to see someone so generous be miserable.  
    His name was Sir, right? That's what CS called him.   
    Sir really needed to come up here and see what laid right outside the pane of glass. It really was marvelous outside. Which, it was kinda strange too. Kirby didn't see any sort of exit doors that lead outside on his little exploration. How did one get out there? Was there a way?  
    Kirby left the window after a minute or two more of gazing. His descent back down the spiral staircase was motivated by the idea of bringing Sir here, to see the sight that awaited at the top. Perhaps that would make him happy? He certainly had a liking for yellow and what not, so why wouldn't he? Kirby poyoed thoughtfully, not running down the stairs for the sake of his own energy.  
    The next couple of minutes were.. Well, disorienting. When Kirby had reached the bottom of the staircase, went through the hall, he ended up at a familiar crossing of corridors. However, it appeared as if his memory had disobeyed him, and he ended up going down one particular path that went to another path he didn't remember.  
    Kirby had gotten himself lost, he had no idea where to go. It took multiple different turns and twists into places he'd already visited for him to realize this. How was anyone supposed to navigate all these identical passages?  
    Now severely confused as to where he was, Kirby sat down in the middle of the hallway and looked at the floor. Tears brimmed as he sniffled. He didn't want to be lost, he didn't want this. The thought of being lost forever sank its fangs into the little child, and the possibility, at the moment, seemed entirely too real. He was utterly alone, nothing told his ideas otherwise.  
    "Hey kiddo-"  
    CS appeared on a nearby wall tv, stalling mid-talk. His jaw held open for a second before snapping shut, realizing what he was observing. Exhaling as if he were irritated, one of those wall hands appeared to wipe Kirby's tears. Relieved of his illogical stress, Kirby clung to the steel appendage thankfully.  
    "Kid, if you need help with anything, just call for me, okay? There's no need to cry."  
    The smile the highlighter-dressed man gave was comforting enough to reassure Kirby of his words. Kirby let go of the hand, watching it burrow and hide in the wall once more.  
    "Just say 'CS' and I'll be there in half a millisecond or less."  
    It hadn't occurred to Kirby that Sir had just called for the fellow's name earlier today, and, on cue, CS had appeared. Well, now Kirby just felt a bit dumb for not trying to call earlier. Might as well get some practice in now.  
    "S-Suh.. Suh.."  
    CS rose a brow watching the tot attempt.  
    "Suh.. Sh.. Suh.. Se.. See.. Ass? See Ass?"  
    Bingo. Bullseye. Touchdown. All that. Kirby did it. Proud of himself, all previous thoughts of abashment and worry fled him.  
    "No, no, Ess. Ess, Kirby."  
    "See Ess!!"  
    Okay, he really did it this time. Now he was extra, super proud of himself. CS laughed, but it wasn't a mocking one.  
    "I'm sure you're hungry by now, right?"  
    Kirby wasn't exactly famished, but he sure could go for some grub. Especially after all this exercise and his avoided sobbing episode, phew. He nodded.  
    "Well then, follow the floor."  
    There was a long line down the center of each corridor. It contrasted the white floor in how dark it was, and the fact that it was glass rather than steel. The line nearby Kirby had lit up, bright and yellow. Kirby gave the sudden color a cautious poke, finding it was still glass. Well, CS had said to follow the floor, he probably meant to follow wherever this sudden color lead.  
    Kirby waddled, following it, forgetting to say goodbye to CS as he did so.  
    Within a couple minutes, Kirby was back at the place where he started; the hall where Sir had put him down and told him to go off and explore. The color, however, had stopped infront of one of the doors Kirby had forgot to look inside of. This was the end of the road.  
    Putting it together, Kirby came to the conclusion that food was behind this door. He approached, the door slid open, and revealed absolutely no food. Instead, a room full of metal picnic benches, shiny and new. There wasn't just a couple of them. There were lots of these things. The room was gigantic and full of them. Columns could be seen in the distance, holding up the room's ceiling.   
    Kirby took a seat at the closest bench to the door. He scanned the place again. There was no one here, either. How was he meant to get food if there was nobody here?  
    On cue, a very, very large television dropped from the center of the room. Its cord was gigantic, it seemed, as it could move its way over to Kirby's seat no problem. CS, again, was on this screen.  
    "So, would you like anything inparticular?"  
    Kirby pondered the question CS proposed.  
    "Poyo, poyo poyo, poyo. Mm.. Poyo, poyo poyo."  
    He tried to say it as eloquently as possible. CS kept his smile, but looked slightly confused. Kirby didn't blame him, it was quite a foreign sort of dish, not many have heard of it.  
    "Uhm.. How about I just whip you up something and you can tell me if you want it or not."  
    That sounded fine. Kirby nodded, since that got his point across the easiest.   
    A long tube, entirely made of glass, fell from the ceiling infront of Kirby. It stopped above the table, but with how fast it came down, Kirby would've sworn it would've destroyed itself from smashing into the table.  
    From the tube, a ceramic plate skyrocketed down and plopped itself onto the surface. The sound of rushing air accompanied it as it landed perfectly, without being damaged whatsoever. On the plate was a cute little meal. White rice, corn (not on the cob), some chicken. From the tube, additionally, a glass of milk accompanied pretty quickly.  
    That was like.. Instant. Kirby looked towards CS, looking for an explanation as to how CS made food so quickly. CS offered none, just sitting quietly and waiting for Kirby to dig in.  
    Dig in Kirby did. He quite literally vacuumed up the food, then looked for more, waving the empty plate at CS to show he'd finished. If CS could make food quickly, Kirby would eat just as fast. He earned a chuckle from the man before a different dish found its place on the table.  
    Kirby ate to his heart's content. Which, really, lasted for about two minutes. When you could eat as fast as Kirby, that two minutes meant that over twenty different plates had been wiped clean of their contents.  
    Kirby signaled he was done when he finally grabbed hold of his drink, chugged the whole thing, then begun to stack all of his plates. He couldn't help but feel sorta spoiled. Other than CS, there was no one here.  
    "Poyo, poyo?"  
    Kirby asked.  
    "..Uh..? I don't quite understand what you're asking, Kirby."  
    Okay, clearly there was some sort of language barrier here— despite the fact they were speaking the same language—, because nothing Kirby said was being understood. He pointed around at the empty seats.  
    "The seats? Is something wrong with them?"  
    Kirby pointed to himself.  
    "You?"  
    CS put his hand to his chin, going into thought.  
    "Something with the seats and you.. Oh, are you wondering why there are so many seats and you're the only person here?"  
    Close enough. Kirby nodded.  
    "Holy Nightmare Corporation was originally intended to have trillions of employees onboard of its main headquarters— this ship— at all times but that plan went out the window a long time ago. My boss, Stars bless him, made this cafeteria during the times he intended to have other people aboard."  
    So there were supposed to be other people here. Kirby suspected as much. He wondered why the 'plan went out the window', but he wasn't going to try and ask about it.  
    "And since he has no need to actually eat physical food, he has no reason to use this cafeteria. And I have no use for it either, for, well, obvious reasons."  
    These reasons were not at all obvious to Kirby. He tilted his head at the statement. Both of them were equally confusing. Okay, maybe Sir ran off sunlight or magic or something, but CS?   
    "Poyo, See Ess..??"  
    "Are you asking me why I don't need to use it?"  
    Kirby nodded.   
    "Ah, okay then. Well, Kirby, my name is CS. It's an acronym for Computer System. I'm not a real, living and breathing person. I have no need for food."  
    Okay, now this was getting even more confusing.  
    "It's how I'm able to do all these things across the ship and be able to be anywhere and everywhere at once. It's also thanks to me that Holy Nightmare is running, because I handle the sales, distributions, customers, really just everything in regards to business."  
    Wow, that sounded a bit overwhelming.  
    "But it's really thanks to my boss that everything can even happen. He's like, the big, most foremost cog in the entire machine of this company. Remove him, and nothing can operate. All of the company's success is really owed to him."  
    So Sir was also working and doing all this stuff.. How stressful. Now Kirby really wanted to give him a hug. Working basically alone on a big, empty fortress for a long time couldn't be fun.   
    "Stars, I just wish he'd realize how important he is again.."  
    "S.. Suuhh.. Ss.."  
    Oh geez.  
    "S.. Sirr, poyo? Sir, poyo?"  
    CS paused for a second, then chuckled.  
    "Sir, yes. His name is actually Nightmare."  
    Nightmare? That's kinda a weird name.  
    "What about him?"  
    Kirby got up from his seat and walked over to the door. He pointed, hoping CS would understand what he meant. He took a solid second or two to think of what to say in response.  
    "He's..? Uh.. Okay, Kirby, give me a second."  
    More silence.   
    "Hmm.. You wanna know which door he's behind?"  
    Sure. Kirby nodded, and CS seemed quite proud of getting it right.   
    "He's just in his work room. It's in the hall, you'll find it."  
    The cafeteria door slid open, and Kirby returned to the hallway. He did remember to wave goodbye to CS before he left this time around. As he waved, he watched the same tube that delivered his food suck up his dirty dishes and cup. Quite efficient and magical. Kirby briefly wondered where the dishes went, but he realigned himself to the task at hand.  
    There weren't many doors he could be behind out in this hallway. It was probably one of the halls with the least amount of doors, so that was pretty good. After checking the room Kirby had slept in last night, he managed to find the fabled workroom.  
    It was a, wow, generally empty room. Terminals and obvious robot hand panels lined the walls. There were also some other panels all over the floor and ceiling. They were kinda odd in how they were put on the floor, though. There were a lot, a lot of those panels compared to the wall hands, which Kirby noted the latter seemed to be very mathematically put around.  
    Nightmare's attention was peaked as soon as Kirby had triggered the door to open. Nightmare was facing the door, doing something weird with his hands— which he stopped as soon as he noticed Kirby.  
    "Oh, hi Kirby."  
    He greeted. Kirby poyoed, waggling his stubs at the tall banana that was his host. Nightmare shrunk down to a more reasonable size before approaching the puff. Kirby did not stop waggling his stubs until he got what he wanted.  
    "Poyo, poyo!"  
    He stated before running up to the yellow cloaked man and tugging on his cape. Kirby tugged as hard as he could with the lack of fingers or any thumbs. Nightmare seemed a tad confused by it, but just shrunk himself down more. Now Nightmare was probably twice Kirby's size. Very, very reasonable. He stopped tugging on the cape.  
    "Is something wrong?"  
    Kirby did not answer. Not with words. Simply, he pounced and latched himself onto Nightmare's face with a vicegrip. Nightmare had flinched. Well, the puff felt bad for scaring him, he really hadn't intended that.  
    "Uh.. Oh, are you lonely?"  
    Nightmare drew his own conclusions from the face hug. He managed to carefully coax Kirby off of his face and into his hand. Kirby sat there, feeling like a volleyball.  
    "Stars, I'm so stupid, leaving you to wander around the fortress alone.."  
    Nightmare moved himself and Kirby out from the work room, door clicking behind. He put the grey puff back onto the floor for what he needed to do next. He did some small, weird movements with his hands, and the next moment Kirby blinked, Nightmare held something round and red. It glimmered in the artificial light.  
    Kirby poyoed excitedly, jumping and trying to get to whatever he was holding.  
    "Here," Nightmare moved his hand down, letting Kirby see the thing that had suddenly appeared, "it was dumb of me to just let you go off and explore stuff by yourself."  
    The ball in Nightmare's hands had soft, rounded light blue spines on it. Kirby poked at the little things, watching as the ball stirred and moved. Sheepish, a head poked itself out from the ball and looked towards Nightmare, then towards Kirby.  
    "Her name is Ice Dragon. She'll keep you company."  
    "Ishh.. Dwah.."  
    Kirby pat Ice Dragon on the snout, making her scrunch up her face a bit before a snaggletoothed grin. She stood from her comfy spot on Nightmare's hand, joining Kirby on the floor. She was around the same size as Kirby, maybe slightly smaller. She had quite stubby legs and a pretty chubby tummy, but Kirby thought she'd be perfect for running around and exploring with.  
    The two were going to be instant pals.  
    "Did CS already give you something to eat?"  
    Kirby was more focused on poking Ice Dragon than answering. When he did realize he was asked a question, though, he nodded. Lots of nodding going on today.  
    "That's good to hear.. How about you two keep exploring, okay? If you need anything, I'll be in my workroom, alright?"  
    Kirby was a bit disappointed that Nightmare had to get back to work so quickly, he understood it fully. CS did say everything Nightmare did was really, super important. Kirby received a bit of pat on the head before Nightmare absconded back to his mysterious office.  
    With his new friend, a full tummy, and a lot of new information, Kirby felt a renewed vigor to explore wash over him. Time to show Ice Dragon the ropes.


	3. Day 7

    Friends, friends, more friends.. Now Kirby had a whole squad of friends to run around with! There was never a dull moment during exploration now! Or, really, there was never a dull moment just in general. Alongside Ice Dragon from a while ago, Sir made some more friends for Kirby as the days crawled forward. They were all so fun and playful!  
    The new members of the friend group were Phan Phan, Heavy Annaconda, Pterodaclopse, and Susshi. They were all around the same size as Kirby, and great pals despite the fact he only knew them for such a small amount of time. Whenever the six of them played together, there was sure to be plenty of laughter and as much mischief as possible in a completely supervised environment.  
    Mischief usually just consistent of play-fighting and general roughhousing. Sir was never very happy whenever he saw all of them covered in bruises, and was extremely worried the first time it happened, but now he was a bit exasperated it by it. Sir would always heal all the kids up using his magic, then ask them all to at least play a bit softer so that way they didn't get injured or anything.  
    All of them would smile and nod, then promptly go and do it again.   
    Which, well, that's exactly what they were doing now. Roughhousing, again. The kids had basically all just woken up and here they were, all tumbling around and full of energy. The cuddle pile had all been broken up into pure chaos.  
    Entropy, playful, happy entropy.  
    They ruffled up the big, pink fluffy blanket that Sir had set out for them to sleep on as they all tussled. Jeers and growls echoed throughout the shared 'bedroom' as they all played.   
    Kirby was busy smacking Heavy Annaconda's head with his nubs when Sir began to stir from his sleep. Everyone stopped playing immediately, the room going silent as the big banana woke up. The blanket that everyone else slept on was basically right next to him, so it was easy to tell whenever he was getting up— being so close to him and what not.  
    He didn't seem to take note of the fact that the kids were fighting right before he woke up. Sir just sat up, groaned a little, staggered in his sat-up position for a second or so, and got up.  
    For the past couple days or so, Sir was like this. Kirby figured he just wasn't much of a morning person, because whenever he woke up, he was entirely solemn and a bit exhausted. Exhausted in the way he spoke, the way he acted, and the way he held himself for the next hour before he was back to normal. It's like Sir hadn't even gotten a wink of sleep. He would've been better off just staying up rather than sleeping, honestly. Would've accomplished the exact same thing.  
    Kirby tried to talk to him about it, but there was still that communication barrier.   
    "CS.. Start making them breakfast, please.."  
    Sir muttered, going towards the door, pushing his hand on it. A delayed opening from the door.  
    So, all Kirby and the other kids could do is watch him leave the room, solemn. Eerie.. It almost made everyone jump— save for Ice Dragon who did jump— when CS made himself an entrance via television drop down.  
    "Alright you rascals, get your butts down to the cafeteria."  
    With nothing else to say, the tv retreated back to whence it came, and the squad of babies all squabbled out of the room to go eat breakfast. Jeering and chattering happily as they ran out the door and into the hallway. Kirby was happy to go eat breakfast, but there was this slight nagging feeling in the back of his mind. It was always there in the morning.  
    He really did worry about Sir..  
    The feeling didn't fade entirely as he and the other kids ate CS's nicely prepared breakfast. It was forgotten about when there was a small foodfight, but swiftly returned after the fight was over. Kirby knew he shouldn't worry, since obviously nothing was particularly or glaringly wrong. Still, he couldn't help it.   
    Before heading off for exploration, Kirby turned towards Sir's work room. He could hear small noises of automation and moving parts. Sir was working, as he usually did for the first couple hours. He'd be fine after a little bit, Kirby reassured himself, but..  
    Kirby let his concern show on his face when he turned back to his squad of friends. Phan Phan waddled up to him, tooting her horn in a consoling way. Kirby knew she was right— there was nothing to worry about— but still. She gave him a pat on the head with her trunk before rejoining the rest of the squad, who were content to set off down the endless halls now. Kirby trailed after, quick as to not be left behind.  
    As they all explored, all they found were empty rooms, empty halls. Unlike Kirby, they weren't exactly the most patient bunch of friends. So, it started off with Susshi shoving into Pterodaclopse. The flightless bird growled and whacked Susshi with his wing, which made him roll into Phan Phan. Clearly unhappy with having been hit, Susshi went to charge back at the person he'd originally provoked, only for Pterodaclopse to jump out of the way. Susshi ended up steamrolling Kirby.  
    Kirby, when he managed to not be so stuck to the floor, he floated upwards to watch the impending chaos unfold. It was like an exponential function down there; just getting progressively intense by the second.  
    Kirby always found he had a bit of an advantage because he could fly whilst no one else could. Even though Pterodaclopse had wings, she couldn't actually manage to get Kirby. Really, all Kirby would have to worry about was Heavy Anaconda managing to jump and knock him out of the air with his noodle body.  
    Kirby stuck to the ceiling like a rogue balloon. Ice Dragon went around biting everyone, Phan Phan was rolling around with Susshi chasing her, Heavy Anaconda was busy trying to choke Pterodaclopse out through squishing him. All in all, a typical day of playfighting. With not a moment to lose, Kirby stuck. He kicked at heads before promptly going back to safety.  
    Hisses of annoyance (and one trumpet toot) from the friends as now attention was all on the grey puff. Still protected through his ability to fly. Why did he just do that? Why not? Kirby was smug about his advantages, might as well see all his friends try to bring him down.  
    Oh, and bring him down they sure did try. All of them tried to form some sort of tower to knock him from his position of power, which his only response was to slightly move away. He would've poyoed at their exasperated expense if he weren't holding in a bunch of air.  
    When he saw his friends move out of the way, he didn't expect much. Only Susshi and Heavy Anaconda seemed to stand to try and get Kirby out of the air.  Susshi was directly facing Kirby, giving a glower, somewhat unaware of the fact that the snake was next to him. Without a bit of hesitance, the noodle rose its tail and smacked Susshi like a golf-ball, directly into Kirby!  
    It was a hole in one, hitting its target perfectly. A little too perfectly. Behind Kirby was one of the metal walls, and apparently the paneling in this specific district got budget cuts. The panel crunched under the puff and Susshi as the two smashed into it. It came off, following the two down onto the ground. Two 'plops' and a loud clatter, Kirby had been dethroned.  
    Kirby staggered up.  
    "Oooooh.."  
    The other children chorused in unison in their own special ways. It was the 'ooh' that young ones made when someone just did something extremely bad, and was about to get in some deep trouble. Kirby certainly was going to be in trouble. This was.. Like.. Bad. Property damage and what not. Well, CS wasn't going to yell at Kirby, but he'd certainly get a scolding from Sir for this..  
    Sir didn't need to know, right?  
    Kirby picked up the metal that'd fallen off, looking at how crunched it was. Looking back towards the place it'd been removed. Wires upon wires laid bare, and now.. Some were frayed and sparking. Looking back at the piece of metal, it appears the inside had some parts meant to hold the wires in place, but with the way it fell off, it had completely severed some of the things it was meant to protect.  
    Oh geez..  
    CS surely would've seen or felt this happen, right? CS could fix it.. Kirby put the metal back down and returned to his friends. If this taught all of them anything, it was that Anaconda was a very, very good shot with her tail and Susshi was an excellent ball. He made sure to tell the two of them this through pats to their heads, like the good sport he was.  
    However, like the neglectful child he was, he didn't even bother to call CS down to report the happenstance.  
  


* * *

  
  
    Lunch went relatively fine, no food fight breaking out this time. CS had prepared burgers and an appetizer of some fries. Everyone scarfed down their food, thanking CS before heading out to go out to do some more exploring. For now, Kirby seemed to have enough of the whole 'exploring' thing, and decided to stay behind whilst everyone went and wandered.  
    Though perplexed at first, sure enough, Kirby's squad of friends left him to his devices. He knew he was doing the right thing when he approached Sir's work room, watching the door slide open.  
    What laid before him nearly mortified Kirby. Sir was hurting himself. He was sitting up against a wall, hands held to the tornado that was the guy's body, sparking with electricity. The bolts wrapped themselves in the magic wing then vanished. Kirby squeaked and ran to him.  
    "Poyno! Poyno!!"  
    Kirby cried, seemingly jostling Sir out of some dazed state, because the banana-caped host jumped and shifted slightly when he heard Kirby's cry. Kirby was running as fast as his little floppy feet could take him over to Sir, who had now stopped hurting himself. He placed his hands beside himself, where Kirby went and grabbed onto the nearest finger.  
    "Uhm, hello, Kirby. Is something wrong..?"  
    Yes!! Something was wrong!! Kirby smacked his nubs against Sir's finger, but that didn't get any point across very well.  
    "Has CS not fed you lunch yet?"  
    "Poy!!" Kirby continued to smack the finger, "Bzz!!! Poyno!!"  
    "..Uh.."  
    Sir gave a nice, awkward two second silence whilst Kirby looked up at him.   
    "There's a bee in the fortress..?"  
    "Poyo!!! Bzzzzttt!!"  
    Kirby slapped the metal finger once more.   
    "My hand..?"  
    A nod from the grey puff.  
    "Uh.. My electricity..? Oh, Kirby, did you think I was hurting myself?"  
    Kirby teared up. The thought of his host, so nice and generous, hurting himself.. Sir gasped softly, gently wiping the tot's tears before they could threaten to trail down the orb.  
    "I wasn't..! Sorry for scaring you.."  
    Sir apologized whilst Kirby busied himself with hugging the hand that wiped his tears.  
    "It's a way to relieve stress that I do.. It basically zaps all the thoughts out of my brain, makes me relax. No need to worry or cry, okay..?"  
    Kirby nodded, unlatching himself. He wouldn't really know what to do if Sir was actually hurting himself. Well, he'd probably cry. Yeah, that seems like something he'd most likely do. Cry very, very loudly.  
    Wait, if electricity was good for Sir.. Kirby got an idea.   
    He held up his nub to Sir, as if to tell him 'one second' before leaving the room to traverse the hallways once more. Finding the panel his friends had previously broken, he flew up to the part with the still exposed wires.  
    Yup, they were still sparking. Kirby figured he shouldn't directly touch the part that was sparking. That would most likely be a very bad idea. So, grabbing the wire by its rubber casing, Kirby began to yank. Just a few pulls and the wire began to move with him. Back down onto the floor, the wire pulled out from the wall. It was loose, indicating there was a fair amount of this he could pull out.  
    The distance from the panel to Sir's work room was a fair amount, but even as Kirby turned corners and what not to get there, the cord was still loose. Apparently this was a very, very long wire, because Kirby got back to the work room without any issues of it running out.  
    He did, however, have one problem as soon as he arrived with the live wire.  
    "Wh- Kirby! No!"   
    Sir got up and immediately snatched the wire from Kirby, leaving the puff pouting.  
    "Where did you get this..!? Kirby, you can't go playing with wires like this, you could hurt yourself!"  
    "Poyo!"  
    Kirby grabbed onto the part of the wire that was on the floor, tugging it out of Sir's hand. The guy just picked it right back up, though.  
    "Kirby, no. You do not play with exposed wires."  
    Sir was clearly not very happy with what he thought Kirby was trying to do here.   
    "Poyo, bzz, poyo.."  
    Kirby tried to explain, Sir now looking skeptical.  
    "What were you thinking?"  
    That was spoken a bit more softly than the previous, panicked half-scolding ones. Kirby pointed at Sir's 'body'. The fellow hesitated a bit, looking down towards where Kirby was pointing. He thought for a moment.  
    "Why would you try to bring me this.."  
    Sir mused out loud, probably connecting his eyes to the sparking copper. A second more passed.  
    "Is this because I told you electricity calms me down..?"  
    Kirby nodded to the answer. Sir's face twisted. He didn't look mad, he looked like he was going to cry. Kirby was about to say something, apologize for making Sir sad somehow, but-  
    "Thank you, Kirby.."  
    Sir chuckled and choked up at the same time. It was weird. Very mixed signals here. Was Sir sad or was he angry?  
    "S-Sir ssad, poyo? Poyo?"  
    Just gotta make sure.  
    "No, no, Kirby, I'm just emotional is all.. And you don't have to call me Sir, my name is Nightmare."  
    Emotional? Wasn't crying bad? Why was he acting as if this were fine? Kirby didn't quite understand.  
    "I really appreciate the thought you've given me.. But you really still shouldn't be touching something so dangerous."  
    Nightmare kept the cord in his hand as he floated over Kirby towards the door. What, he was just going to leave? What about calming down?  
    "Ma, poyo!!"  
    Ma stilled, looking back towards the little puff before he could even force the door to open for him.   
    "Did you jus-"  
    "Ma, poyo poyo.."  
    Kirby waddled over, putting his nubs on the insulated part of the electricity noodle. Like a soft plea. Or something.  
    "Kirby.."  
    Oh jeez it sounds like he's about to cry again. But Ma's smiling, so it doesn't make much sense. Next thing Kirby knows, Ma's dropped the noodle and has swept Kirby up into a hug. Well, like, the best hug one could give when they didn't have a body or more than half their arms. Either way, Kirby is held close to Ma's 'chest' (really more like collar) and it's nice.  
    The hug is entirely silent and goes on for a little, but Kirby's fine with that.   
    Eventually placed back down, Kirby watched as Ma picked the wire back up in exchange.  
    "I need to go fix this.. Do you want to come with me?"  
    Well, his friends were probably long gone by now. So, unless he just wanted to sit around alone..  
    "Poyup!"  
    And with that, their journey began.  
    Ma was frustrated when he saw the damages and the amount of wire pulled out. Following the wire for entire minutes through the labyrinth of halls, he only got more and more despaired at the amount of work he'd have to do. He was passive, though, and didn't speak a word of anger or scolding towards the grey puff that followed.  
    Apparently pulling out all that stuff meant that there was a lot that needed to be wrapped back and replaced. The two had to go to the sort of 'source' of all this stuff, which, well..  
    "Actually, Kirby, I don't think it's very safe if I let you come with me.."  
    Ma admitted, looking at the damaged panel as he realized the whole scale of the situation.  
    "So, here.."  
    Ma waved his hands, clouds of white sparking and forming between them. Spikes rose from the fluffy white blob, crackling with electrical power as they did so. Something.. An eye opened up in the 'middle' of it, bright and starry.  
    "Fhh.. Fhwend, poyo!"  
    Kirby called to the newly formed creature.  
    "His name is Kracko," Ma informed whilst Kracko floated from him, "he should keep you company for now. Make sure to show him to the rest of your friends during dinner time, aright? I don't think you'd leave anyone out, but.."  
    Kirby nodded viciously, trying to get the point across that he understood. Kracko, now at Kirby's side, would be rather curious, so Kirby could handle this whilst Ma went off and did repairs on stuff.  
    "Alright.. Now, don't go breaking more things, please."  
    Ma, soft in request, took a second before teleporting off to wherever he needed to be.   
    Leaving Kirby and Kracko to their own devices, Kirby figured he did some good today. Well, he broke a panel, but it ended up going fine! Sure, it made more work for Ma, but he did make Ma smile and he got a new friend out of it.  
    Kirby did good, and he was proud of himself.


	4. Day 46

    Nightmare awoke with a startled gasp, being ripped from his position in the Dream Realm. That hadn't happened in a while.. The person who's dreams he was visiting had been suddenly awoken or something. Slightly sitting up from his laid down position, Nightmare felt a headache coming on. Pushing his free hand to his head in some stupid action to try to protect his forehead from pain, surprisingly, didn't work.   
    "Ow.."   
    He muttered softly as he looked down towards the big blanket that sat next to him. All the monster children, soundly asleep and all snuggled up. Except Kirby, who took up residence in Nightmare's other hand. A tiny grey speck in his comparatively huge talons.    
    The wizard wasn't exactly sure what compelled Kirby to snuggle up to the cold metal hand rather than with his warm pals on a soft blanket. Even if Nightmare tried to dissuade Kirby by using the idea that he could be in danger if Nightmare shifted his height in his sleep— which more often than not was the case— the orb refused to listen to him.   
    Nightmare moved the grey puff to the snuggle pile as softly as he could. As he found out, Kirby was a fairly light sleeper. The wizard was lucky enough to not wake him by saying 'ow' earlier. As soon as Kirby was off his hand, he dropped both arms to his sides, just looking at the darkened room's white walls.   
    There's no point in going back to sleep since the other was awake. Nightmare might as well stay awake too, right? If he couldn't help the knight, he might as well just stay up and work.   
    Floating up gently, Nightmare exited the room, leaving Kirby and the monster children behind in the dimly lit 'bedroom'. Now he was in a brightly lit white hallway. Despite the fact that he was wearing sunglasses, it still hurt his 'eyes' a bit. A simple cross of the hallway and Nightmare was in his familiar work room, still adjusting to the brightness.   
    A press of a button and the televisions switched on, showing the numerous orders and requests he had to do. They never stopped, not for a second. Perhaps if he stopped trying to make each monster its own individual, he could get through all these a bit faster.. No, he wasn't going to fall into mass, personality-less creatures. That just felt wrong.   
    At least that's one thing he doesn't do wrong. He makes things pretty high quality, but.. They're still Demonbeasts. Everyone sees the beasts as evil by default, so.. Wasn't this a bad thing? A bad thing that he put so much time and energy into creating living weapons? No, they aren't living weapons, they're animals. They're animals with special abilities, and they are not evil by default.   
    It all depends on who's commanding them. Demonbeasts aren't evil unless made to be. Which, Nightmare didn't make them evil. He didn't train them to be evil. He didn't do anything, anything like that. Not anymore. No, not anymore. Isn't that what matters? That it's not like that anymore.   
    As Nightmare thought as he went to work on creating what was requested of him. A Ponpon here, a Kracko there, all beings to be taken immediately after being summoned by the automatic systems he put in place, and names to be checked off of the list. He found himself being sluggish in making his Demonbeasts, like there was some sort of lag between his fingers and his brain.   
    Maybe he was still half asleep. Well, not maybe. He did just wake up a couple minutes ago, and so suddenly too. Nightmare looked over to the many terminals, their buttons all different colors. His gaze was directed at one inparticular that was red and square.   
    It'd hurt. That'd wake him up.   
    His hand hovered out towards the terminal before reclusively going back to his body. If he pressed that button.. He'd distress Kirby. He'd distress all the monster kids, too. They all cared for him, they didn't need to see him injured. Especially when he was so amateurish at healing himself that it'd take forever to actually get rid of the wound.   
    Looks like Nightmare was sort of banned from using those sorts of methods, huh. Just thinking about how they'd effect Kirby or the others made him hold himself back.    
    He would just have to get over the grogginess with work, rather than removing it automatically. There was part of him that really, really wanted to press that button, despite the fact that it'd get everyone worried. It was tempting, it was.    
    Kirby was a good kid, though. Very compassionate in general. Nightmare couldn't put him through that sort of stress.. So, he beat back the idea with a mental pole whilst he worked and worked.    
    Eventually he spaced out, his vision going blurry as he just went through the motions. By the time he'd snapped back into reality, it'd been two or so hours. Er, well, it felt like two or so hours. He hadn't checked the time when he started working. The sluggishness and what not had all worn off by then, and he was fully awake.   
    Though, as it seemed, it was still a little bit too early for Kirby or the other monster kids to be up and at 'em.   
    Might as well finish some other stuff too. Nightmare looked towards the requests, seeing how he'd basically only barely made a dent in how many orders he had. Customers certainly did keep him busy.. But they knew their orders took time, so it was fine. He could go off, do other stuff. Not like he had any emergency orders or anything.   
    Nightmare headed from his work room, back out into the hall.   
    "CS," Nightmare hummed as he watched the robot show up on his suspended screen, "did the Destrayas find anything while I was asleep?"   
    "Eh, one ship. Another trading thing. It's already all fixed up, it was barely even damaged."   
    CS explained, seeming quite unamused but still braggy. Yes, CS did work very, very quickly in regards to ship repair, but Nightmare would appreciate at least a bit more enthusiasm in his tone.   
    "Sir, when are you going to stop doing this?"   
    "Uh?"   
    "Our fortress is like Shiver Star's Bermuda Triangle. Ships pass through it, some spooky stuff happens, and they can't remember the middle part of passing through it at all. Sir, I get anonymous help is sortof your thing, but-"   
    "People deserve help, CS, they just.. Don't need to know it was from me."   
    "Of course they need to know!"   
    Perhaps Nightmare flinched at the forcefulness and slightly angry exasperation in CS's tone, because the salesman quickly adjusted himself.   
    "Sir.. Your reputation is just going to stay the same if you keep doing this. You want to help others, but you don't want to take credit for it. It just. Doesn't make any sense."   
    "Just trying to be selfless.."   
    "Your selflessness- Sir- You're hurting yourself by doing this. You're being counterproductive. Don't you want others to like you?"   
    "..W-Well, yes.."   
    "Then you need to stop."   
    There was a small, couple second long silence that followed that. Nice and awkward.   
    "I'll think about it."   
    Nightmare mumbled, having absolutely no desire or will to actually think about it from CS's side.   
    "Thank you.."   
    With nothing else to say, CS's television reverted back into the ceiling. Nightmare blinked a bit, floating there like some guy who forgot what he was doing. Since there was a trader ship, he might as well go off and deal with it now, before CS took it upon himself to push the ship out without Nightmare's permission.   
    A simple grab and flick of his cape over himself and Nightmare was in the docks. Sure enough, the ship was there. One of very uh.. Literal design. It looked like a boat. One of those sorts of boats that Nightmare had seen around on Shiver Star. It looked like a war boat. Very strange. Perhaps it was just fortified and built to look scary? That could be the case.   
    Nightmare coughed a tad before heading over to the dock's control panel. Pushing a few buttons and a rectangular door popped open on the side of the ship. Ah, the wonders of parasite-like technology..   
    "Knock knock.."   
    Nightmare hummed, hearing slight noise from within the vessel. Ah.. Fairies. He recognized the language spoken. Maybe this could be easy..? He did do buisness with the queen of Ripple Star more than once, after all..   
    "I don't mean harm, I have provided help to fairies before. Please, come out."   
    Nightmare requested, hearing more chatter from within. Five or six distinct voices. This ship certainly had a small crew. After a few moments, sure enough, some fairies emerged. Two male, four female, and two children of indistinct gender.   
    "What do you want from us, demon."   
    One of the women hissed, straining to look up at him but not daring to flap their insectoid wings to look him in the eyes. All of them stayed on the ground. Nightmare could taste their fear, despite how their anger covered it on their faces. Strangely enough, the children were the ones with the least amount of it.   
    "I just.. Well, you've probably heard of what happens when ships cross these parts, so.."   
    That seemed to grant some realization between all of the fairies. They talked to eachother in Fairspeak, thinking Nightmare couldn't understand them. Well, he sort of could, but they were talking much too fast for him to get any good hold of their conversation.   
    "You're going to wipe our memories?"   
    Nightmare nodded at the question, spoken by the same woman (except a bit less tense). The fairies seemed wary of him still. Perhaps it was due to the fact that he towered over them.   
    "I don't trust anything that comes out of this demon's mouth."   
    One of the male fairies spoke up, being so curt as to even make eyecontact with the demon whilst speaking.   
    "He's probably going to torture all our memories out of us or turn us into Demonbeasts then replace us with exact copies to send back on the ship. Because that's what this guy does best! Don't tell me you're falling for this for a second."   
    The male looked back towards the other fairies before back towards Nightmare.   
    "Enemy," Nightmare cringed slightly at the statement of his war-given nickname, "you will let us go. Now."   
    ..Who are these people? To think they have the right to demand stuff from him? In their positions-   
    No, they have full right to command him. They're scared, they want to leave as soon as possible. It's the fear that makes them so brash, and Nightmare can't blame them for being scared.   
    "I will. I just.. I have to wipe your memories. Of this."   
    He was so reserved for a gigantic demon with destructive powers beyond imagine. He'd already begun the movements, his hands glowing white. The previously speaking of the fairies flew into the air, drawing a gun out of nowhere. It whirred loudly, lighting up its sides with red before shooting at him.   
    The shot was a laser, red and concentrated. However, the fairy had decided the best place to aim was at Nightmare's face. The thing made of cosmic steel; a thing that could only be pierced or harmed by a select few things. So, the laser bounced right off, deflecting back and searing through the attacker's shoulder (and thusly through part of his wing). He cried out, dropping quickly.   
    Nightmare's magic quickly went from white to cyan as he caught the now injured fairy— whose fear was now through the roof. The other fairies below were all gasping and panicking, talking to eachother quickly in Fairspeak.   
    Nightmare examined the shot shoulder. It'd basically just been grazed over the top. It'd already been cauterized by the heat of the laser's blast, so at least the fellow wasn't going to be passing from this. It'd just be hurting a lot.   
    Nightmare was much too adept at healing magic to completely put all the skin and muscle back, but.. He could ease the pain. Which, well, that's exactly what he did. The fairy in his hands went from crying in pain to completely silent and shocked.   
    Depositing fellow onto the ground next to his friends, Nightmare went back to the simple white magic.   
    "No need for violence, it's fine."   
    Nightmare tried to comfort, but all of them still seemed rather distressed. Oh well. Hovering his hand over the fairies then pressing down on them gently— as to not squish them in the process— he felt their fear skyrocket before immediately vanish. Removing his hand, all he saw were glassy-eyed individuals, very still.   
    "You have been travelling, and your ship has made it through the mysterious part of the stars which no one remembers anything from. It was fairly uneventful, except for a misfire on one of the blasters, which hit one of your crewmate's shoulders."   
    Nightmare explained. The explanation after memory wiping was very, very important. It's what replaced the forgotten events. So, rather than remembering Nightmare was the one who helped them, they'd all remember false memories based on what he said instead.   
    They still looked rather glossy-eyed, so Nightmare helped them back into their ship, setting them off on their way. They'd be back to normal eventually, and probably as soon as they're a fair distance away from the fortress too.   
    Soon enough, the ship was off and out of the dock, back out into space.   
    Watching their departure, knowing he helped in some form.. Well, he didn't.. Really help too much this time. He costed someone part of their shoulder. But.. He tried to help. He did try..   
_All you ever do is hurt people. Do you seriously expect me to believe you've changed? You must think I'm an idiot._   
    Oh. Right. All he ever did was hurt people.. Just like he did now. Nightmare floated there, just looking down at the floor blankly. Like he'd lost track of what he was doing, but really, his mind was running so fast that it sounded like absolutely nothing. He calmed himself, inhaling and exhaling, before trying to recompose. A few more breaths and he was fine.    
    With a flick of his cape, he was back in his workroom. Checking the time, the exertion had only taken like.. Five minutes. So, he supposed he could just go back to work on some monster orders, since that was done.   
_Is this fun? This? Do you get a real kick out of it, **asshole**? Getting your chuckles from trying to bring me or Stars knows who's else spirits up just so you can crush them all over again?!  
    _ Let's not start this again. Nightmare didn't need this right now.. He's trying to focus on work. He needs to just space out, focus on work and not on the fact that he physically hurt someone.    
    Was his kindness just a step on his path to harm others? Was that was it was? All it was? Was he just destined to hurt people in some way? Was that just going to be how it was going to be forever?   
_That this is all you are… all you have been… all you will_ **ever** be…  
    No, he doesn't.. He doesn't want to hear this right now. His hands sparked, holding them to his core as soon as possible. The familiar voice shuts itself up immediately, and Nightmare's inner monologue does the same. It's completely empty and peaceful in his mind. It's nice. It feels nice.  
    Just the feeling of sitting back and forcibly relaxing.. It's nice. Real nice.  
    So, instead of working, Nightmare just sits back and relaxes. Takes a break from his thoughts, from whatever might plague him next. Probably the thought of hurting that innocent fairy. That would've plagued him over these hours, had he not taken the time to remove all trains of thought from his brain. For, like, multiple hours, he just sat there.  
    Sure it was sorta boring, but Nightmare wasn't really one who lived an all too exciting life nowadays. He was fine with being bored. It was one of the better ways to feel, in his opinion, since happiness was so fleeting and sadness (or guilt) was absolutely crushing.  
    Nightmare yawned as he sat, letting the hours pass him by with no productivity. He literally was doing absolutely nothing right now.  
    It'd been a while once he finally felt he'd had enough. Nightmare blinked a bit as he stopped the therapeutic practice, getting himself off the ground before heading back into the hall. He was curious as to if Kirby and his friends were up yet, so he was just gonna go and check real quick.  
    Sure enough, all the kids were gone from the bedroom.   
    "Uhm, CS?"  
    Blah blah blah, CS appears as soon as he's called.  
    "Yes, sir?"  
    "Did you feed all the kids breakfast?"  
    "Yes."  
    "How long has it been since they went out to go uh.. Explore?"  
    "An hour or so."  
    Nightmare was getting some bad vibes, and he wasn't exactly sure as to why. He couldn't place where the anxiousness was coming from, but it was there. Something didn't feel right..  
    "Can you show me where they are?"  
    "Yeah. Here."  
    With a quick transition of the screen, suddenly it showed a sort of security-monitor like bit of footage. Kirby and his friends, exploring the hallways and having fun. However, there was one thing that seemed very, very wrong.  
    The sector that was given. It was displayed on the screen as well.   
    That zone, that sector was shut off. Nightmare had told CS to shut it entirely off. It was too close to the fortress's sun and was highly irradiated. The entire hallway was made of lead just to try and keep it from seeping in anywhere else.   
    Kirby and friends were there.  
    "C-CS!"  
    Nightmare sputtered out before quickly taking to action. He grabbed his cape, teleporting quickly through the hallways. Within the next second, Nightmare had appeared before Kirby and the monster children.   
    He startled them significantly, grabbing all of them haphazardly and a bit roughly before teleporting back to safety. He didn't have much time. He didn't have much time at all. He didn't know how long they were in there for.   
    Back within the bedroom instantly, he summoned a protective bubble around the children (mostly so they couldn't leave whilst he did this) and put his hands on either side of it. Everyone inside was very, very confused. That didn't matter right now.  
    Hands going completely sky-blue, he watched as the bubble adopted the color too. Sparkles of sorts rained down on the children, and Nightmare immediately heard their displeasure for it. This was one of the few sorts of healing magics that didn't feel entirely pleasant. Well, it wasn't healing magic per-say. It was meant to remove radiation from objects, but it could be used on living beings too.  
    "CS, why did you keep those doors open?!"  
    "Uh.. Sorry, sir. The accidental shutdown last week seemed to have opened all the doors there. I'll close them now."  
    "Thank you.."  
    Nightmare turned his attention back to the kiddos, who were all groaning like they were sick. That was a tell-tale sign that there was some actual radiation poisoning in them. They'd groan and act like they were in pain whilst undergoing this treatment. He felt his heart ache at this, but it had to be done, even if it wasn't fun.  
    "Just a couple minutes, children, hang in there.."  
    Nightmare said, trying to be as comforting as possible.   
    As the minutes droned on, the groans grew less and less. Eventually, the kids seemed fine, not even complaining anymore. Nightmare gave it just a little longer, just to be absolutely safe.   
    He didn't know what would've happened if.. If he let any of them fall victim to it. He don't know what he'd do if that happened. He didn't want to think about it, but anxiety told him all about it in whisper-yells.    
    It made him tear up behind his shades. Perhaps out of relief, perhaps from the idea of any one of them passing, just.. Something. He wasn't going to fully cry, no. He was just emotional.    
    Nightmare let the bubble pop eventually, in which some of the kids went over to him. He shrunk down to a reasonable size (because he'd apparently neglected to do that earlier) and hugged as many as possible. He was so, so thankful to have them.   
    "Don't do that again.."   
    His voice is slightly squeaky from the emotion, but he gets it across fine.   
    Yes, they give him something to worry over. Yes, it's concerning. But, unlike most things that did that, they also gave him something else. He recognized it in them. In CS too. Unconditional, platonic love. Which, until these recent days, he didn't know he needed so desperately to have. 


	5. Day 89

    SCREEEEEEEEEEEEECH.  
    Kirby's eyes shot open as he heard a tearing noise. Man, it was loud enough to wake people from comas! Not to mention just, how generally unpleasant it was on the ears if it weren't so loud. It was a familiar one; the one of tearing metal. Though, Kirby didn't expect to hear it so.. Uh, early? Late? It was dim in the room, so it was still sleeping time.  
    Blinking and rubbing his eyes, Kirby scanned around. He'd decided to sleep in the snuggle pile tonight, since Ma really was insistent on it. Speaking of Ma, his back was turned to the pile, as usual. Though, something seemed.. A bit wrong.   
    When Ma slept, Kirby could usually see the back of his head. Completely. Now, part of it was more tucked in towards his chest. It was a tad weird.. For anyone else it was just the way they were sleeping, nothing else, but with Ma it was very different. Kirby couldn't explain it, but it just felt different. Like every action had some hidden meaning and any little thing could lead to something bad. Bad for Ma.  
    Kirby got up from the pile, walking over some faces of also waking friends— which grunted and hissed appropriately when stepped on. Walking off the blanket, Kirby crossed the floor. Up and around Ma, who was still asleep. Kirby just needed to check..  
    The dimness of the room didn't prevent Kirby from seeing anything. It most certainly didn't stop him from seeing that Ma had dug his hand into the steel flooring and left a huge and long set of clawmarks in it. His fingers were still in the floor now, gripping hard into the upturned metal. His other hand wasn't so active, just facing up towards the ceiling.  
    What was slightly more active, though, was Ma's face. He did not look like he was having a good time. Rather, he appeared to be having the exact opposite. The corners of his mouth turned downward lips parted to show teeth slightly grit, that was all. If there was more tell-tale signs of someone having a bad time, they were behind Ma's glasses, and Kirby wasn't about to touch those.  
    There was also the fact that Ma's tornado was.. Actually making noise. Like, actual wind noises. It was slight, very slight, but it was there. Fast, rushing wind. Kirby wasn't sure what that meant. Though, seeing as how Ma was not exactly in a pleasant state, Kirby could only assume it was bad.  
    Kirby went to Ma's face, pushing on it. Slapping it. Whatever. He needed Ma to wake up. Kirby doesn't like this, not one bit. He doesn't like seeing Ma like this. As Ma gave no reaction, Kirby called for his friends. For only a few showed up.  
    A minute or so of pushing on Ma's face did absolutely nothing.  
    He needed help.  
    "Cuh.. C..hh.. S..Ssee.."  
    C'mon, Kirby, you can do it. It's just two letters. You've said his name like, a million times now.  
    "S-See Ess!!"  
    Yay.  
    The next moment, a television drops down, its screen blaring light into Kirby's eyes. Ouch. Kirby has to close them in order to make sure he doesn't get frickin' blinded by CS.  
    "What's- Oh."  
    CS sounded happy for a second there, but the tone immediately changed. He sounds almost.. Mad?  
    "M-Ma, poyo!"  
    Kirby points at Ma— well, he hopes he does, he still has his eyes closed.   
    "Yes, I see that, Kirby. There's nothing I can do."  
    ..What?  
    "P-poyo! Ma!"  
    "Kirby, it doesn't matter if you smack him into a wall hard enough to punch a hole through it. He cannot wake up whilst he's like this. He's currently visiting someone's" there was a lot of bitten back hatred on that 'someone', "dreams at the moment. He will not be able to wake up unless he leaves them or if that other person wakes up."  
    Huh??? What?? Ma was in someone else's dreams? Why did he look like he was having a nightmare?  
    "The person he's visiting" lots of resentment in his words there too, "is most likely yelling at him as we speak."  
    What!?   
    "P-poyo!"  
    "I don't like it either, Kirby. I've tried literally every single method in the book to wake him up, but.. None of it has worked. We can only just sit and wait. Hope for the best," a robotic arm came from the wall and pat the orb in a comforting way, "and just go back to sleep. He won't be up for a couple more hours."  
    Kirby, eyes still closed, looked back to where he assumed his friends to be in order to get some glances from them. After that, he turned down to the ground and nodded.  
    "Try to get some rest, kiddo."  
    With that, CS's screen shut off and went back to whence it came. Eyes blinking open and adjusting again, Kirby looked towards Ma. There was nothing he could do..? CS had tried everything already..? A pain rose in Kirby's chest at the idea of being incapable of helping someone. Of helping Ma, who deserved help. Yet, there.. There was nothing he could do..  
    Apparently Kirby's sudden sadness came out in childish tears, because his friends came over to come and hug them (well, Susshi and Kracko tried to but didn't really have any arms, but it's the thought that counts). They hoisted Kirby up and brought him back to the cuddle pile.  
    Screeeeeee..  
    Ma must've just made his mark on the floor even longer. It pained Kirby's heart just as much as his ears.  
  


* * *

  
  
    "Alright kiddos, up and at 'em."  
    Kirby groaned at CS's morning call. He couldn't go back to sleep. Not properly, anyways. He kept waking up at every little thing. He must've woken up, like, ten or so times before now. It was pretty bad. Kirby rubbed his nubs over his dreary eyes whilst his friends took off just as roughly as Kirby did.   
    "Uuuuupp."  
    CS reinforced, getting another, louder groan from Kirby as the light-gray puff flopped over onto the soft blanket. Before Kirby knew it, he and his other pals were hoisted (except for Kracko, who was more than energetic enough to not have to be forced up) onto their feet by CS's robotic hands.   
    Even now, Kirby was hearing the small noises of metal being scratched. Ma was not very kind to the floor whilst he was having that nightmare.. Which, in turn, was not nice to Kirby's ears. As much as he hated to admit it, he wanted to leave the room as soon as possible so his ears could get a break from the horrid noise. So, as he goes out the door with the rest of his friends, he's happy to have the sound muffled by the slightly soundproof metal door.  
    CS ushered him and his friends to the cafeteria for breakfast, where once seated, Kirby flopped forward onto the metal picnic-table and groaned. He really got no sleep and he was still grumpy from it.. He needed a nap or something. Or a hug.  
    Kirby got one of those things. The latter, specifically. Ice Dragon came over and hugged the orb with stubby arms. Pterodaclopse came over and hugged soon after, then the few other monster kids that also had arms came over as well. A nice big hug pile, which Kirby was right in the center of. More than comfy, Kirby was thinking about falling asleep, but then he realized he'd miss breakfast if he slept through it.  
    "Poyo, poyo.."  
    Kirby thanked, patting the heads he could reach with his cyanish-grey nubs.  
    Suddenly, there's a loud 'snap' noise. Not like a stick breaking or, really, anything breaking. More like.. A shutter-sound. Looking around, Kirby sees this camera hanging down from the ceiling, pointed down at Kirby and his friends.  
    "Sorry," CS's voice, "I just thought Nightmare would like to see this cute little thing once he wakes up. No, actually, he'll probably need to see this once he wakes up. Alright, anyways, food."  
    At the mention of food, the kids disperse from the hug to take their chosen spots at the table. Everyone wanted that food more than they wanted to stay in that hug, apparently. Not that Kirby blamed them or anything, the food here was pretty good. While not quite up to Kirby's culinary standards, it was still pretty good regardless.  
    Breakfast is over in a few moments as everyone snarfs down the stuff on the plates (and some actually ate the plates too), then started out for the daily exploration. It's hard to explore everywhere when there's like.. A curfew for how long they can be out and about. They always had to be back for— at the very least, dinner, and at most— bedtime. By now, Kirby and pals felt like they'd gone down every path possible.. But, well, there's sure to be some left, right?  
    Well, either it's the current situation or that defeatist thought that gets Kirby, because the puff's not exactly in the adventuring spirit at the moment. As the others went forward down the hall, Kirby stalled in its middle. When one of his friends looked back and gave a concerned chirp, Kirby just waved his nub.  
    "Poyo poyo," Kirby stated, sounding as groggy as a detective after a hard case, "poyo poyo."  
    With that dismissal, Kirby just watched as his friends went on without him. Yeah.. He was a bit too tired to adventure and deal with shenanigans. Today didn't get off to the best start and all.. Plus, Kirby's still a bit.. Concerned.  
    He wants to sleep, but he also wants to check on Ma. Ma wakes up with them or wakes up before them, he doesn't sleep for super long after everyone else wakes up..   
    So, Kirby headed back to the sleeping room. Where Ma is still laying in the exact same position as Kirby saw him last. For a moment, Kirby thinks that the guy is still asleep, but there's something different. The room is silent.. Entirely. Before, Ma's tornado was being loud. Making noise. Now there's.. Nothing.  
    Kirby walks in further, walking around Ma's cape to see that Ma has taken his fingers out of the claw marks on the floor. Rather, he's just laying his hand ontop of them plainly. His other hand hasn't moved at all. Kirby toddled over for a closer look, crossing over to the upturned one and hugging its side (since it was simply too big to climb onto).  
    A second or so of hugging and suddenly Ma's shrinking down and getting up. Like Kirby's what the yellow fellow needed in order to properly wake up. Kirby looks up at Ma's face and sees the same sort of face he normally does. Tired. Unhappy. Though, there's something about this particular face the emanates that the lack of happiness isn't from the exhaustion.  
    It takes a moment, but Kirby's scooped up in Ma's steel hands and brought into the best hug Ma could muster without a real body or arms past his elbows. It mostly just consists of Ma pressing Kirby lightly to the area below his neck. Something's very wrong.. Kirby can just tell. He doesn't know how he can tell, he just can.  
    "Ma, poyo..? Suh.. Sad?"  
    No response.  
    "Ma..?"  
    Nothing.  
    "Poyo? Poyo, poyo?"  
    Kirby is sorta pressed into this hug, he can't see Ma's face at the moment. He can't see much except for the pastel yellow fabric. So with nothing else to do, Kirby just hugs back.  
    "Ma poyo.."  
    Kirby poyos, nuzzling his face into the worn— yet soft— cape. If he huggled (hug-snuggled) back, maybe Ma wouldn't be sad. Kirby didn't want Ma to be sad.. He didn't want anyone to be sad, but Ma especially. If there's someone who didn't deserve to be sad, it was Ma.  
    So, Kirby hugs.  
    And hugs.  
    And hugs some more.  
    There's eventually a reaction. Ma lessens his effort to hug Kirby. He's one-handedly hugging Kirby now. Well, actually, it's more like carrying now, isn't it? Well, whatever it is.. It lets Kirby look around a bit more. He can look down and see Ma grab part of his cape with his hand.  
    Throwing the cape over himself, the two teleport. Kirby can tell only because the floor looks different. Ma teleports a couple times before he seems to have found whatever he was looking for. Ma gently set Kirby down on the floor.   
    Kirby gets a good look at Ma's face.. The frown's deepened. But not in an irritated way. It's a hard to explain thing, but Kirby can just tell that the deepening frown isn't from rage or something like that. Even though for any normal person, it would've meant that. Perhaps it's the rough and bruised appearance Ma had that gave it the feeling of tragedy, or perhaps it's some other sixth sense that Kirby had. Either way, it's a sad frown and not a mad frown.  
    "Ma, ma, poyo poyo-"  
    Before Kirby can finish, Ma throws his cape over himself, and is gone. Kirby gave a long sigh, looking around to find out where Ma dropped him off. Kirby suspected- ah, yes, there they were. Kirby's suspicions proven immediately correct. Ma'd dropped him off by all of his friends.  
    Kirby was questioned a bit by them, questions as to what was going on and all that, which Kirby answered completely truthfully. A few comforting comments from Phan Phan and Susshi later, Kirby decided to leave Ma alone for a bit. If Ma wanted Kirby to stay by his friends, then that's probably what he should do. So, that's exactly what Kirby was going to do. Of course, he had to be convinced a bit first, but yeah, he's staying by them until food time.  
    Hopefully some exploration will keep his mind off what happened.  
    It actually did, for a time.   
    Exploring was really more just talking about what movies to ask CS about or what shows to watch, stuff like that. Movies and all that were like a portal to another world, all wrapped up in a couple hour viewing experience. It was pretty cool, and a great topic to talk about whenever Kirby and his friends got bored. Replaying scenes from action movies was fun too.  
    Regardless of what the chatter was about, everyone decided to head back for lunch, since they weren't making any new stunning progress on walking around. So, with a simple call of CS, the glass on the floor lit up to show the way back to the cafeteria, blah blah blah, all that good stuff.  
    Lunch goes fine, with only a medium sized food-fight this time around. The actual food was fine too, of course. Though, Kirby would've preferred to eat it off a plate rather than his face.  
    Though, as they left the food hall, Kirby heard something from one of the other rooms. Talking. Now, call Kirby nosy, but he was going to go find out what the talking was about. With how the day was going, Kirby felt like he was sorta responsible for listening in on potentially important conversations.  
    Approaching the door of the sleep room (but not standing infront of it or anywhere near its sensors), Kirby pressed himself up against the metal wall. Most of his friends did the same, the only ones not bothering being Heavy Anaconda and Susshi.  
    "Sir, listen to me."  
    "Y-You're just gonna s-say-"  
    "You need to stop visiting that guy. For your own sanity. For my sanity too. Mostly for yours. Do you know how horrible it is for me? Seeing you like this?"  
    "I-I have t-"  
    "No, sir, you do not have to visit him. For any reason."  
    "C-CS, I-I have to.. I-I need t-to help h-him.."  
    Ma sounds like he's going to burst into tears.  
    "Yeah, and your attempts to help him, mind you, made you have, hm, bi-weekly panic attacks before I made you keep Kirby, made you be exhausted every morning, transformed your entire personality into something highly reserved and apologetic, Stars, Nightmare, it made you isolate from the rest of the galaxy in a gigantic metal palace! If I weren't here, I'm sure you would've made more than sure you were completely without company! Because-"  
    "Y-You don't understand.."  
    "Sir. I've been working for you since the war ended. I more than understand. I have the computing process to more than understand. He's made you hate yourself and you let him. Because you feel guilty. You felt guilty, then he decided to yell and scream at you for it. That's not your fault, that's his."  
    "I-It's my f-fault..! I s-started the war in the f-first place! I-I'm the one who made him i-into what he is! It is m-my fault, CS! H-He tried to r-reason with me and I-I just slapped h-him away! Multiple times! And n-now he's miserable! T-That's my fault!"  
    "And now he's doing the exact same thing to you! He's slapping you away when you're trying to reason with him! He's the one being stubborn! His inability to listen to reason is his fault!"  
    "No! N-No it's not!"  
    "Oh, so you just wanna tell me that all your depression-driven visits to Nova aren't anyone's fault but your own then, huh? That it's your fault he's yelling at you and motivating you to take them, huh? You're out here trying to get that clock to wipe every single memory from your brain, essentially murdering your entire existence, and you're telling me that's not his fault?"  
    "Yes! T-That's what I'm trying to-"  
    "Do you hear yourself when you talk?"  
    "D-Do you!?"  
    Voice crack.  
    "..Sir.."  
    "Y-You're acting l-like I'm- L-Like I'm s-some sort of i-innocent bystander! I-I'm not! I'm not! Y-You know what I did! Him, h-him yelling at me i-is completely justified! I t-took everything from h-him! Everything! H-His friends, h-his brother, every s-single one of his comrades, I.. I-I took all of them! I took m-millions more, I-I slaughtered innocents!"  
    "Sir, calm down.."  
    "N-Now you're trying to tell me I-I don't deserve this!? A-After everything!? J-Just because I act better n-now doesn't mean I'm m-magically redeemed! N-Not now, not e-ever! There's n-no excuse! I-I'm not t-trying, t-trying to be forgiven, I..! I j-just want to h-help him.. I-If I get yelled a-at it's fine! Because I-I'm not innocent, CS! I-I never was! I was b-born evil! I, n-never once, was a g-good person!"  
    "Sir.."  
    "I-If I can help him.. If.. J-Just maybe I could help h-him be less miserable, b-be less.. Less angry a-at everything.. I-It'd show, I-I don't know.. Show something.. S-Show that I'm trying to be better.. L-Legitimately t-trying to help people.."  
    "What do you call helping those damaged trader ships and those kids, then? What about Kirby? Do they not count?"  
    "T-They're not as big.. CS, I-I just want to help  _him_.. I-I just want to undo s-something I did back then.. H-He's the only person I could do that with.. The last one f-from the war.. If I can u-undo it, t-that'd mean something to me."  
    "Sir, he turned you into an anxious, self-hating mess in the process of you trying to help him."  
    "I-If that's what you call being empathetic, t-then yes, I am."  
    "Sir.. Do you know what you just said?"  
    "Yes.."  
    Y'know, when Kirby pressed his 'ear' up to this wall, he was expecting some funny banter. Some, like, maybe some sort of cute conversation. Instead, he got an argument where Ma sounded like he was about to cry or was crying during it. Kirby was just.. Shocked. Shocked at the contents of it, of what was said. What was admitted.  
    Kirby needed to get in there. He couldn't just stand around and listen to this stuff anymore. He wasn't going to be an eavesdropper. He was going to join this conversation, bring in his own points, and guide the topic to his winning 'side'.  
    Kirby marched up to the door, watching it slide open to reveal the room's contents. Ma, as he assumed, was indeed crying. CS's dropdown television hid most of Ma's face, but Kirby saw it regardless.   
    Kirby was about to say something, but he was cut somewhat abrupt. Ma noticed Kirby. He looked at Kirby like he'd seen a ghost, gasping. The guy was pale already, but somehow, he paled further. Ma even floated back, the familiar noise of Ma's tornado slowly amping up in volume. He certainly seemed panicked.. Why? Was it because of Kirby? No, it couldn't be-  
    "M-Met-t-a.."  
    Ma choked out. CS didn't even turn his television to see Kirby standing there in the door. Hands revealed themselves from the floors and forced Kirby back out of the room, door sliding shut as soon as he was out. The push wasn't very light, it actually made the puff fall directly back onto his hiney. The door made this weird 'clunk' noise as it shut. Not a familiar noise.  
    Kirby got up, walked to it once more, expecting the door to open again. But it didn't.  
    "Poyo? Ma! Ma, poyo!"  
    Kirby was nice and loud, going up and slapping his nubs against the door. He wanted in. He wanted to help. How could he help if he was stuck out here, where Ma couldn't hear him?   
    Kirby could hear Ma, but Ma couldn't hear him.. Kirby pressed his face up against the door, hearing only whispers and distressed sobs. Nothing discernible. It was.. This was pretty bad.  
    Really bad.


	6. Day 90

    If there's one thing Kirby learned about Ma today (along with all the other things), it was that Ma could cry for a very, very long time. Like, holy geez. Hours had passed and Ma was still locked up in the bedroom making those sobbing noises. Kirby and the other kids were ushered away from the room's door by CS to go watch movies in the movie room so that by the time the flick was over, Ma was done. Nope. Ma was still at it.    
    Now, it was way past everyone's bed time and they'd all just finished watching another movie. The credits were rolling on by and everyone— save for Kracko— was having a hard time staying awake. Heavy Anaconda busied quickly with rolling everyone into a nice big cuddle pile to get ready for the sleepy times, which Kirby didn't protest to at first.  
    It was only after everyone else had settled into the pile that Kirby began to protest. Perhaps it was the slight jab of Kracko's spike that got Kirby up and about, or maybe it was just the emotional drive. Probably the first one. The first one leading into the second one.  
    Kirby decides he wants to sleep in the actual place he's supposed to sleep. He doesn't want to sleep in this movie room, as comfy as Ma'd made it. He wanted to sleep on the big yellow blanket himself. Or, at the very least, the big pink blanket that was on the floor in there. Either way, he wants to get in the room Ma's probably still crying in. He wants to sleep in there, cuddle up to Ma, and try to make the guy cry less.  
    It was a small journey from the movie room to the sleeping room. Only took a minute or so, even with his floppy little feet. The hallway was pretty quiet aside from the little noise of Kirby's waddling and occasional hum of electricity from within the walls. No muffled crying to be heard whatsoever. Curious.  
    As soon as he got close enough to the door, to his surprise, it slid open.   
    Kirby had suspected Ma had moved on to a different room or something, but nope. Ma was there. He seemed a little wrapped up. Like, he was literally wrapped up in CS's metal wall hands in some gigantic wirey hug. He was a lot calmer, so that's good. The familiar sight of Ma's electric magic was dancing along the hug's 'arms', which is most likely why. Forthough, the guy's face was still red and Kirby could see those not-very-faded-at-all tear stains as well.  
    At least he wasn't crying anymore.  
    "Poyo..?"  
    Kirby poyoed as he waddled in, door closing behind him. Ma inhaled, then exhaled like he was out of breath.  
    "Kirby.. Sorry for.. For freaking out at you earlier.."  
    Man it was hard to keep eye contact with a guy who's ten feet tall when you're but an eight inch blob on the ground.  
    "I just.. I-I sort of mistook you for someone who looks a lot like you.. You're the same grey.. Actually, ehm.. You're a bit lighter and off-colored than-.. It doesn't matter. I'm sorry."  
    Ma sounds like he just came out of a dentists appointment that he was sedated for. The amount of calm in his voice is unnatural. The slur is there too. Maybe this is what Ma is like when he's shocking himself? Kirby didn't actually talk to him during the time he was actually doing it.. Ma'd stopped as soon as Kirby entered the room that one time.  
    "I must've worried you.."  
    Yeah, no duh. Dude suddenly starts crying his eyes out and Kirby can't do anything to help? Oh yeah, no, Kirby rested just fine knowing that he was, in some way, directly responsible for Ma freaking out.   
    "Suhh.. Sh.."  
    Kirby waddled on over to the guy, pulling on the slightly exposed yellow cape that he could get his hands on.  
    "Ma, poyo.. Sad? Whh.. Wuh, why?"  
    Kirby looked at Ma's face and literally watched him cringe.  
    "It's grownup stuff.. Not very fun to talk about, okay..?"   
    Ma cooed, then looked off a bit.  
    "CS, you can let go of me, I'll be fine.."  
    With that simple request, the untangling and unwrapping process began. Took a couple seconds, but those snake-like contraptions which held onto Ma so nicely were once again back in their place within the walls. Ma's hands hovered a bit mid-air (where they were left by the wires) until they eventually moved in towards his own tornado to continue the whole 'stay chill' program.  
    Ma inhaled, exhaled, then slid downwards on the wall until he was basically the equivalent of an adjacent and an opposite on a right angle triangle. Perfect.   
    Time to put his toddler powers to use and scale this blanket like Kirby's a cat and Ma's a brand-new curtain. Kirby grabbed onto Ma's cape with his nubs then slowly hoisted himself up with his inexplicable climbing ability. Then, Kirby remembered he could just float and did that instead. He floated all the way up to Ma's shoulder armor, standing right next to his face and horn.  
    "Poyo."  
    "Ow.. Kirby, my ear's right there.. You don't have to poyo so loud.."  
    Oh. Whoops.  
    "Poyo?"  
    Kirby spoke again, much quieter.   
    "Thank you.."  
    "Poyo, poyo, Ma."  
    Kirby tapped Ma's face with his nubs.  
    "Sad Ma, poyo? Suuuhhh.. St.. Shh.. St.. Ghg. Poyo.. Poyo, poyo.. Shtill? Sad?"  
    Took him a bit there, but he managed. Ma still certainly looked miserable, even if he was more relaxed whilst doing so.  
    "No.. I'm all sad-ed out.."   
    Ma forces a laugh.  
    "Besides, how would I be able to stay sad if you're on my shoulder..? Can't stay sad when you're by.."  
    Ma sighs.  
    "Kirby, I wasn't.. Wasn't a very happy person very often before you crashed into me. CS.. I don't know if you remember, but he talked about how you made me smile, the day you arrived. It was a pretty amazing feat.. I think, Kirby, you might be some sort of magnet for happiness. That people just.. Become happier by being around you. I wonder.."  
    Kirby hugged the side of Ma's face the best he can when he's just an ant compared to this giant. Alright, now what's that one word.. Right. Yeah. Okay, this'll be a little hard to say. Hogh.. Alright, here goes.  
    "Poy.. Poyo, poyo. Llhh.. Luhhh.. Lh. Luuhhhv.. Luhv.. Love Ma, poyo."  
    Nice.  
    Ma's sort of emotionless face shifted. A smile. Toothless and small, accompanied by a shudder and the loud sounds of zapping from Ma's electricity. Suddenly, a hand arises from the cape and lightly pats Kirby on the head with an index finger.  
    "I love you too, Kirby."


	7. Day 300

    The night hadn't been kind to him. To be fair, no night was ever kind to him. He certainly hadn't expected to wake up fully relaxed and rested, no. The slight line between unconscious and conscious is the one he currently walked. One where he just sat there, comfortable, and half-asleep. So, when Nightmare feels Kirby slapping on his horn— his ear— he groans and shifts. This reaction only gives Kirby even more incentive to poke, as he now knew Nightmare was actually somewhat awake and thinking.  
    "Mghh.. Kirby stop.."  
    Despite the request, Kirby does not stop. In fact, he's now tugging on Nightmare's horn too. Like tugging would get him anywhere, really.   
    "Poyo!"  
    "Ow, Kirby, right in my ear.."  
    Nightmare yawned, jaw dislocating to properly show off all his teeth. It snapped back instantly, as usual. Pressing his hand to the floor, he supported himself in getting up whilst Kirby clung to his horn.  
    "CS.."  
    Nightmare gritted his teeth as he resisted fully yawning once more. The televised fellow appeared whilst he did so.  
    "Yes, sir?"  
    "What day is it?"  
    "It is Wednesday on Shiver Star."  
    "No, the number."  
    "..The third of October."  
    Was it? Huh.. Halloween would be soon. How would he set up Halloween for these kids..? Ah.. He shouldn't worry about that right now, he's got a bigger fish to anxiously fry.   
    "The other one."  
    "..What other one?"  
    "How many days since-"  
    "Oh, since Kirby arrived? Three hundred. Exactly."  
    Three hundred days.. Almost an entire year of Shiver Star time. Has it really been that long? It hasn't felt like it's been that long. Every day has just gone so fast, so so much faster than it used to. Ah.. But three hundred on the dot.. That seems like the perfect number, nice and round.  
    "Three hundred.."  
    Nightmare parroted, poking at the pure cyan orb on his shoulder. Over the days, Kirby's greyness— his biological heroism— had all but vanished. It made him wonder if Kirby was no longer a Star Warrior, but he doubted a mere color change would be able to affect that as well.   
    "I believe we should do something special."  
    Nightmare lifted Kirby with his finger, and Kirby clung to him tightly. The little child looked like a cute ladybug ontop of his claw.   
    "Howso, sir?"  
    "I'm sure you know by now, CS."  
    Nightmare said, light smile on his face as he looked to the other children, who were play-fighting down below. Shrinking down to a more reasonable size (with Kirby still clinging to his finger), he stopped the fights with a simple 'shh'. Nightmare motioned towards the door, and the demon children clamored out in a reasonable amount of noise and time.  
    Kirby climbing all over his hand like the ladybug he was, the children slightly tugging at his cape as he went down the hall with them, Nightmare's usual grogginess had been all but erased. This was a good morning, and the night hadn't been as bad as usual.  
    It'd been a while since he personally was inside of the cafeteria with the kids. Perhaps it was a bit negligent of him to do it so rarely, but he had always just felt so distant in the mornings. Having him there during it would probably just bring their little spirits down.   
    But he's fine today, and they're all happy to have him there. Kirby was happy enough to not even bother to get out of his hand. Apparently he's gonna be Kirby's seat for breakfast. Well, that's fine for him.  
    "Ah, it's probably a bit unhealthy, but.."  
    Nightmare tapped his own cheek idly, metal clicking on metal.  
    "Perhaps some cake.."  
    He could see literal stars in Kirby's eyes, and the other kids all howled with agreement at the choice of breakfast. Nightmare knew that his demons could eat even the most vile toxic waste imaginable and be fine. Some cake in the early morning hours wouldn't hurt them. Kirby.. Nightmare knew Batamon could eat whatever they wanted, yeah, but.. Cake in the morning? He wasn't sure.  
    Well, good decision or not, it's being made now. It's an important day, after all.  
    "CS, if you will.."  
    Nightmare idled, looking towards the ceiling for any autonomous response.  
    "One moment.."  
    CS's voice came over the speakers as the glass tube shoot finally descended. One of the bigger ones Nightmare had installed. A click, and then a bright pink frosted vanilla three-layer cake descended down it on a large, metal platter. On the top was a little candy heart. Cute..  
    It didn't stay cute for long. The second it was put ontop of the cafeteria's metal table, claws and teeth were bared, and children flung themselves into the dessert faster than a blink. Kirby was one of those children, vanishing from Nightmare's hand like he'd teleported and ravenously destroying the cake through means of consumption. Nightmare himself had no need to eat it, he couldn't swallow food, and he didn't want to look rude to CS by spitting out this most likely very nice cake.  
    So he's just going to watch and smile.  
    "Sir," CS spoke soft and hushed, his tv right beside Nightmare as to make sure the demon heard him, "he's the best thing that has ever happened for you or the company. What you plan to do is extremely self-destructive."  
    Nightmare kept his smile, but even he won't lie he felt tinges of sadness at what he was going to do. A bittersweet thing, this was.  
    "He'll be much happier on a planet with fresh air, plants, and actual people. My need for happiness is dwarfed by his, and it's not right to keep him here forever. I've kept him longer than I should have."  
    He altered Kirby's biological heroism, even. He made it so the kid wasn't even grey anymore, for the Star's sake. Nightmare didn't even know that was even possible before now.  
    Nightmare turned his head towards CS's tv, and the computerized salesman faced him as well.  
    "I'm saying it's in your best interest if you keep him."  
    "If he's happy, I'll be happy too, CS.."  
    CS gave Nightmare this look. A look with a wrinkled nose, one of clear annoyance. Then, he sighs, shaking his head downwards, catching his forehead in his hand.  
    "And I can't stop you."  
    Nightmare shook his head, and a long exhale came from the other. With that, CS's tv retracted itself back into the wall. No more roadblocks. CS wasn't even going to make an attempt.  
    So, he watched quietly as Kirby and his friends literally ravaged the cake down to the platter in a matter of minutes. With burps and frosting-covered faces, they'd finished with only crumbs left behind.  
    "Kirby.. Come here."  
    Nightmare requested lightly, getting a grunt and some weird noises from Kirby as the (almost white) cyan puff literally rolled himself over to Nightmare, waddling into his open palm. Lifting Kirby up like his hand were an elevator, he stopped at his shoulder, where Kirby disembarked and sat there like a bird.  
    "Kids, I have to go give Kirby something special.. So, start today's little activities without him, okay?"  
    There were a few odd noises from the baby demons before they just nodded in agreement. Kirby poyoed, questioning.   
    Nightmare drifted from the cafeteria into quiet, empty halls. Grabbing his cape, he teleported with but a mere swish. A moment later, he was down at the docks, where a prepared empty bay waited. Beside this one bay was one of his lovely frisbee machinations; a Destraya. A fairly large one. Nightmare was just taking a precaution here.  
    He reached into the Dimensional Cape, fishing around for- ah, there it is. Grabbing onto it lightly, Nightmare pulled out a familiar blue star vehicle. Last time Kirby'd seen it, it was in total disarray.  
    "Ma? Poyo?"  
    Kirby pointed at the starship, curious.  
    "Ah.. CS hid it in the fortress, but I found it and fixed it."  
    He placed the ship on the loading bay, watching it click and clack into place, ready for launch. Lightly picking up his diamond-colored orb, he placed the child onto the star's arm. Kirby looked like he really belonged it now, being cyan and all that..  
    "Kirby.. You go on adventures through the fortress every day."  
    Nightmare prefaced and Kirby instantly looked concerned.  
    "You've brought a lot of j-joy into my life, into CS's life.. Your friend's lives.. I'm.. So glad you crashed into me and CS convinced me to let you stay here. I won't ever forget what you've done for me."  
    Kirby looked very concerned. Like something bad was about to be said.  
    "Kirby.. I'm sending you on a special adventure, okay? I-"  
    "Poyno!! Ma!! Poyno!!"  
    Kirby launched himself off the starship and onto his cape, gripping tightly to the fabric. Like his life, like his destiny depended on it. Like his fate rested on how hard he could grip onto Nightmare.  
    It hurt Nightmare more than this situation already did. Made him want to cry, really— well, everything wanted to make Nightmare cry, but this especially did.  
    "Kirby c-calm down-"  
    "Poyno! Poyno! Poyno!! Ma!!!"  
    "Kirby-"  
    "Poyno!!"  
    Ough, jeez..  
    Nightmare lightly pulled Kirby off his cloak, actually having to use a bit of force too. Kirby sniffled and clung to his metal hand probably just as hard, nuzzling it with his sphere face.  
    "Kirby, listen.. This adventure i-is very special to me, okay..? It's very, very important that it happens.. You can come back from it at any time, okay? You can visit and stop by whenever you want, for as long as you want. I-I.. Just want you to try it for me, okay..?"  
    Kirby sniffled, tears barely being able to be seen over his brilliant coloring.  
    "I.. You've made me a lot happier, Kirby, and I didn't think it was possible.. S-So.. I want you to go out and spread happiness to others too, okay? There's one person who needs your company a lot, and no matter how hard I try to help him, he doesn't want to accept it.. B-But I know you can get to him. I know you can make him happy, like you made me happy."  
    Kirby looked up towards him with eyes still brimming. Ow.  
    "If you.. If you manage to do it for me, if you make him happy.. I'd be overjoyed."  
    Kirby wiped his eyes with his nubs.  
    "W-Will you try..? For me?"  
    Kirby let go of his vice grip and floated back down to his ship by himself.  
    "Poya.. Ma.."  
    Nightmare moved down, his face right at eye level with Kirby's now.  
    "I've already put in all the coordinates to the planet in your ship, and set it to autopilot for you. When you get there.. Ask for Meta Knight, okay? He's the one I want you to help. Can you say that? Meta Knight? J-Just.. Just Meta is fine.. Oh, and.. Um.. Make sure you say your name too. Kirby. Can you say that too?"  
    "K-Kaabi.. Mhh.. Mm.. Mhehta.. Mheta.."  
    "There you go. Just ask for him, okay? Someone should help you find him. He's grey, he wears a mask all the time, and wears dark colors. H-He's the same species as you, and he has yellow eyes. U-Usually."  
    Kirby looked like he was thinking about something.  
    "I need you to treat him like you treated me, okay? Imagine he's me, but extremely sad all the time.."  
    Kirby gasped.  
    "Please, promise me you'll try your hardest, even if he pushes you away..?"  
    Kirby stared at him for a moment, then nodded slowly. Still a bit emotional. Nightmare quickly pulled Kirby in for a final hug, kissing the child on his forehead before he pulled away. Kirby wiped at his eyes, clearly have gotten misty once more, before poking at his starship's glass bubble cover thing.  
    It opened for him, then closed behind him as he got in.  
    "Poya. Ma.. Poyo."  
    Kirby, through voicecracks and obvious emotion, forced a smile and waved to Nightmare. Oh sweet Stars, this child was going to be the death of him.   
    Nightmare quietly went over to the nearby terminal, pressing a few buttons on it, making the neighboring Destraya come to life.  
    "I-I.. I hope you'll visit soon.."  
    Nightmare mumbled, pressing a couple more buttons on it. The bay doors, leading out into space, slid open like garage doors. The Destraya took off first, and Nightmare only had a couple moments to wave goodbye to Kirby before his starship sped after.


	8. POPSTAR Day 0

    Kirby had slept on the trip. It'd taken a reasonably long time, even though the Destraya had loaded him up at one point and warped him most of the way through the journey. The entire time, Kirby was just wishing to turn back and go home. The black emptiness of space, the boringness (that's a word, right) of just sitting there and doing nothing except squint at the incoming blue speck..  
    It wasn't fun.  
    Thinking about his friends, about Ma, CS.. All the memories he'd left back at the fortress.. That he was now bringing to a strange, foreign planet that might not even accept him. The only true comfort Kirby had was the Destraya that drove next to him. It wasn't even sentient. It was a full autonomous machine, just designed to make a round trip.  
    But Kirby found comfort in it's exterior. The white metal, the sleek surface, the light red trimming and streaks on it. The faint glow of some of its details.. It reminded him of home. The white metal especially. It was like the only comfort he was taking with him.. And it was going to leave as soon as he reached his destination safely.  
    Which, the Destraya had to defend Kirby quite a bit. Asteroids, mostly asteroids. Man there were a lot of asteroids. But no matter what, this big frisbee blocked it by using its own mass or by using a sort of red tractor beam. Except, instead of the rocks being pulled into itself, they'd be forced away.   
    Not that there was much need for such things anymore, seeing as how from here, it appeared to be easy sailing.  
    "Ma, poyo.."  
    Kirby mumbled, looking around his ship, opening up the glovebox to only find another box. Inside that box was a tiny blue star, cushioned by fabric specifically shaped to hold it. Weird. Kirby put it back, looking for something else. Anything else. Ma didn't..   
    Ma just fixed the ship for him, he didn't put anything in it..  
    "Poy.."  
    Kirby puffed sadly, seeing the planet approach and take shape. Closer and closer. Another familiar shape; a blue star. Like the one in the box. Like the shape of his ship. It had two rings around it, and.. A sun and a moon orbiting it..? That's pretty cool, actually.  
    Cool or not, it's the end of the road. The place he internally vowed to not leave until Meta Knight was happy or the cyan puff was fatally injured. There's a bitter taste in his mouth that he got from staring at the planet's glowing surface. He isn't sure why, but something tells him there's something very, very off about this planet.   
    A bad sort of off.  
    Kirby looks worriedly back at his escort, which was still chugging on forward with him. A light whine came from the puff before he directed his attention towards his ship's controls. A little steering wheel, which jittered and moved on its own as autopilot controlled it, some dimly flashing buttons, a gas pedal..   
    Kirby grabbed onto the steering wheel with his nubs, holding it tightly. He breathed in, then out, getting a determined look on his face as he slammed the gas, speeding forward towards the planet. The Destraya beside him was left in the dust momentarily before catching and matching his speed.  
    The ship rattled with the sheer velocity that he was going. He glanced beside him to see the Destraya slowing down, for whatever reason. A turn forward once more told Kirby that he was entering the planet's orbit. Quickly, quickly, he was approaching the strange blue. He quickly turned, waving to the Destraya that he could now see was idling on the outside of the atmosphere.  
    Waving goodbye to the last bit of home.   
    As Kirby's ship punctured and slipped through the planet's weird 'outer membrane' atmosphere, the white frisbee completely disappeared behind dull blues and soft white-grey clouds.  
    Kirby felt tears at the corners of his eyes as his ship rattled more, heating up as he'd descended faster and faster. Kirby yanked on the steering wheel here and here, letting go of the gas as he got closer and closer to the ground. Suddenly, the steering wheel took control of itself and the ship broke its crash course Kirby had put it on.  
    It swerved upwards in a U motion before descending at a much more reasonable, less dangerous angle. Kirby brothe a breath of relief, wiping sweat off his brow as he looked at the land that he was going to be staying.  
    There's a little village, a big castle, trees and grass.. Valleys and hills, an oceanside, and even a volcano! Some mountains too! Ooh, this is great. Though.. Everything seemed oddly dull. Compared to the bright whites and yellows of home, this place was much less eye catching.  
    Guess that's just how nature is.  
    Nevertheless, the ship glided nicely over to a nice hillside, landing like a commercial airliner would; with a little skid and a couple jumps, but otherwise finely. Man, this ship's autopilot was great! Man, Kirby would hate to think what would've happened if it weren't good. He probably would've crashed..  
    Kirby pokes at the glass covering his head, making it slide open as the ship lowered itself down closer the ground. Kirby hefted himself out of his seat and onto the ship's arm. Crawling on it like a baby, he looked out once more upon the desaturated paradise he was sent to.  
    In the distance, he could see a.. A rushing smoke cloud? No, not smoke. Dust. Something was kicking up dust. Heading straight for him, getting bigger and bigger. Kirby's question as to what this thing might be didn't go unanswered, as a very very very long car pulled up to his landing site. It was sort of like a limo, but the long part was for the engine rather than the passengers. Weird.  
    From the car stepped two creatures, which made their way over to him. One large, one small. A penguin and a snail. The penguin had black feathers, wore red, and looked quite edgy. Also he was quite a bit.. Plump. The snail was a weird off-green-greyish color with a spiral shell. He had.. Facial hair? And arms? Weird. His beard and mustache were nicely groomed, and both of them seemed like royalty with the way they'd looked and arrived.  
    "We saw your spaceship flying down, we thought you were going to crash. Are you alright?"  
    The snail spoke, holding his hand out for Kirby to grab and disembark completely from his ship. Kirby took it, gladly helping himself down to the ground. Ah, the feeling of grass underneath his feet.. So weird.  
    "Poyoyo! Poy!"  
    Kirby kept hold of the snail's hand and shook it. Just to be polite. The fellow seemed quite surprised, eyes going a tad wide for a second before he smiled.  
    "Guess that's a yes. Welcome to Pupupuland."  
    Poopooland! What a name! Kirby giggled, letting go of the fellow's hand.  
    "My name is Escargon, I'm his majesty's— King Dedede— royal adviser."   
    Escargon motioned over to the king slightly. Kirby turned and held out his nub to the king, who quietly and politely shook it as well. Not much of a talker, Kirby assumed.  
    "And your name?"  
    "Kaabi!"  
    Kirby nodded at Escargon. Hey, wait, these two were people. Royalty.. They probably knew their citizens pretty well, right? They must know where Meta Knight could be. Kirby looked back up at King Dedede, figuring he should ask the big guy since he hasn't spoken once during this entire conversation.  
    "Poyy.. Poyo, Mehh.. Mhetta? Mheta?"  
    "Mheta..?"  
    Escargon parroted, seeming confused.  
    " _Meta_. Meta  _Knight_."  
    King Dedede finally spoke, steely eyes trained on Kirby.  
    "Hey, Kaabi looks exactly like him.. Except not grey, or wearing a mask. Yellow eyes, though."  
    Kirby's glad he got the point across here.  
    "It's a first, though.."  
    King Dedede spoke so strangely. With a very relaxed, mellow and commanding voice. One would expect that from a king, though. A king who's seen a lot of things.  
    "Someone actually wanting to see that guy.."  
    Escargon laughed slightly to himself at Dedede's 'joke'. Kirby felt slightly out of the loop here, not really able to take full part in the humor. Was Meta Knight an unpleasant person to be around? Ma said to treat Meta Knight like Ma when he's super duper sad.. Meta Knight can't possibly be an unpleasant person, right?  Right..? Kirby hoped not.  
    "Mheta, poyo."  
    Kirby restated, pulling on Dedede's fluffy fur-lined sleeve.   
    "Alright, Kaabi, we'll take you to him. Just make sure you didn't leave your keys in your starship, then we can drive you over."  
    Escargon and Dedede were shaping up to be some pretty nice people. Surely, surely Meta Knight would be the same.  
  


* * *

  
  
    The drive through the countryside was nice (if a bit dull), and the castle was honestly no better. With bricks that were strangely tinted blue, he would've found himself in a completely alien and unlikable place.. If it weren't for the fact that the entire place was basically a maze of hallways. Very, very reminiscent of home.. Except no CS to help him if he got lost.  
    Instead, there's Waddle Dees to help him! Uh.. Sorta, anyways.. They all seemed to be very, very good at hiding and doing their tasks without anyone seeing them, but Kirby was told there were thousands of Waddle Dees in here somewhere. Kirby can play hide and seek with them later, first he's gotta find Meta Knight. Escargon was helping him, finding the knight's favorite places to hang out.  
    They checked his room, the armory, they even talked to some of his knaves, but they were uh.. Less than talkative. They didn't care where Meta Knight was, so they just sort of told the two to check Meta Knight's room, and that's all. Very helpful for guys who were supposed to be working for him..  
    After a literal hour of searching for this guy, they eventually did find him. On a balcony. Dangerously close to the edge of the railing he stood on. He was looking down upon the castle courtyard. Just.. Staring.  
    When Escargon saw the sigh, he nervously coughed, extremely loudly, catching the dark knight's attention. Meta Knight gave an elongated groan, the same one an angsty teenager made when their mom just came into their room.  
    "What."  
    Oh, moody.  
    "You have a visitor."  
    Escargon couldn't keep happy around this guy.. Yeah, this isn't a good sign. Very telling of character in a not-so-good way.  
    "Tell them to piss off."  
    Meta Knight didn't even turn around to look at the two.  
    "I can't, and watch the mouth..!"  
    Escargon warned. Kirby was getting some really bad vibes right here..  
    "Oh,  _sorry_ , tell them to fu-"  
    "Poyo?"  
    Kirby poyoed, voice shaking a little bit. That one poyo got Meta Knight to finally turn and look at them. Yup. Yellow eyes.. This is the guy. Internally, he was really really hoping that it wasn't. That there was some other edgy orb living around here and this was just his twin.  
    "Where'd the toddler come from."  
    "Space, in a starship. He says his name is Kaabi."  
    "..Kaabi."  
    Meta Knight seems to ponder it for a moment, finally stepping away from the ledge and getting onto the same playing field as Escargon and Kirby. Funnily enough, Kirby and Meta Knight were the same height. Wasn't this guy supposed to be a knight? Knights are taller than kids.  
    Kirby ran Ma's advice back over in his head. He needed to treat Meta Knight like he's super sad all the time.. So that means Meta Knight needed hugs, and badly. Kirby rushed over as soon as Meta Knight jumped down and clung to him.  
    "Wh-"  
    "Poyo!"  
    That was a very forced, happy poyo.  
    "Mheta, poyo."  
    Kirby looked up into Meta Knight's eyes. Y'know, Kirby isn't a.. Eye-seeing expert, but in there.. In those eyes, he sees a whole lot of coldness. Apathy. Rage. Sadness. It's.. A bit scary. A man with eyes like that, that's the one Kirby's supposed to help..  
    Meta accepted the hug, but didn't reciprocate. Instead, he just looked towards Escargon.  
    "What did his ship look like."  
    "A blue star, with the cockpit in the middle."  
    Meta Knight looked back down to Kirby with an indiscernible look.  
    "..His name is Kirby, not 'Kaabi'."  
    Yeah, Kirby didn't say his name very well, did he.  
    "Kirby."  
    Not gonna lie, Kirby startled when Meta Knight addressed him directly.  
    "..You've grown since I last saw you. But.. Your color..?"  
    Kirby unhugged Meta Knight to look directly at his nubs. These nubs.. They used to be totally grey, now they're a color similar to the diamond of Ma's horns. Bright and beautiful compared to the dullness of everything else.  
    "Where have you been..?"  
    Kirby pondered how to explain this.  
    "You two know eachother?"  
    Escargon questioned, getting a side-glance from Meta.  
    "..I knew him when he was a baby. He had to be sent off in a starship because of Nightmare's Demonbeasts ravaging his planet."  
    What..? Ma wouldn't do that. His 'Demonbeasts' wouldn't do that either.  
    "Clearly he was stopped by something on his way here.. Considering the discoloration.."  
    Meta Knight's eyes turned a soft green as he stared at Kirby. Being under the other's gaze like this felt.. Scrutinizing. Well, he might as well say the truth, right? Er.. Try to the best he could.  
    "Ma, poyo."  
    "..Ma..?"  
    Meta Knight's eyes faded back to yellow. Weird but cool.  
    "Nnnnhhh.. Nii.. Niima.. Niihma.."  
    Trying to say Ma's full name is pretty hard.. Geez, why'd he have to have such a long name? Regardless, it seems like Meta Knight got the point, because his eyes snapped into a bright red.  
    "Nightmare."  
    He hissed. Kirby's eyes widened at the repressed fury in Meta Knight's tone.  
    "Of course he would do this to a  _toddler_. I shouldn't have expected any less."  
    Meta Knight continued, eventually collecting himself and sighing out. The red fizzled away back into yellow, and Meta Knight let his cape down to hold at his head with his hand.  
    "Ugh.. Kirby, whatever Nightmare did to you.."  
    "Ma."  
    Meta Knight's eyes are red again.  
    "Kirby.. You have a lot of things to learn about your  _Ma_."  
    He spat that last word like it were some sort of curse or slur. Something tells Kirby that Ma and Meta Knight might not have the best relationship in the world, especially not from Meta Knight's side.  
    "But first.. You're going to need a guest room."


	9. POPSTAR Day 674

    Another boring day in Pupupuland. Every day was pretty boring, really.. Fumu and Bun tried their best to entertain Kirby with sports or books (respectively) and neither of those really entertained Kirby. No amount of television, of video games, of anything, made Kirby happy for all too long. Perhaps he was just too boring. Perhaps he was too serious.   
    Perhaps he was just too grey for this sorta stuff.   
    Kirby poked at his food with his fork, looking quite crestfallen. Everything was just felt like a chore, really. Getting out of bed, eating breakfast with the Cabinet Minister, being forced to play with their kids, heck, even talking to Meta Knight— a guy he'd admired more than anything— was horribly boring. Not even the evil Demonbeasts that Dedede ordered were ever really any fun.  
    All of them refused to fight Kirby, which was boring. They were easier to destroy, yes, but it was a very empty, hollow victory. A one already decided by the two sides meeting and entirely overkill. Kirby just wanted a little challenge in his life, something to wake up for, rather than just lazing around and robotically going about whatever he'd planned to do that day.  
    "Eat it before it's cold, Kirby."  
    Fumu reminded, more than happily stuffing her pale blue face with the pancakes, much to both Bun and Parm's displeasure. Memu wasn't at the table anymore, she'd finished up her breakfast before anyone else had sat down.  
    Kirby let off a sigh before shoving all his food in his face, and placing the plate down completely clean. With that, he excused himself, jumped off his chair, and promptly left the flat without another word.  
    Wandering around like this got his mind on things. Made him think about all the history lessons Meta Knight gave him. Made him think about how Nightmare manipulated him, brainwashed him. Made Kirby wonder why he didn't see the obvious signs sooner, and all in all, made Kirby feel rather pessimistic and bitter. How dare someone like Nightmare do this to him.. It's better now that Kirby knew the truth, but still. Nightmare had drained Kirby of his greyness; what Meta Knight told him was basically a sign of 'heroism'.   
    Nightmare had tried to get rid of Kirby as a force for good, and through the worst means possible. Through taking Kirby's own mind, and forcing him to sympathize for the demon. A disgusting, vile tactic. Nightmare had used Kirby's naivety and innocence to his advantage, and then stuck him on Popstar to try and convince Meta Knight that the demon was 'good'.  
    The guy may have worn such nice, soft, fluffy pastel colors, but it was really just a facade to distract from how ugly he was. Inside and out.   
    Kirby felt like he should've gotten past this by now. It's been, what, over a year since he came to Popstar? Maybe two? Ugh. He really needs to stop thinking about he was used and abused here, but what else  _was_ there to think about, really? The weather? People? Everything else except for Kirby's own thoughts were boring, and all of those were about negative, dramatic topics.  
    Kirby groaned as he kept walking, obviously very, very bored and angsty.  
    "Kirby."  
    Speak of angst and it will appear. Meta Knight rounded the corner, walking up to Kirby with his black, tattered cape firmly wrapped around him. Yellow eyes.. Must be decent news.  
    "Follow me. I need to show you something."  
    Not like he had literally anything else better to do. Why not? Meta Knight didn't even wait for a response before he turned and walked away, so guess Kirby is pretty expected to follow..  
    The two walked silently for quite a while before crossing into the castle courtyard, where the dry, cracked fountain sat. It was less so a fountain of water and more a fountain of leaves, because that's the only thing that ever was in the fountain's basin.  
    The two, did, indeed, approach the fountain. Meta Knight stopped right infront of its cracks, pulling out a rectangular box from his cloak. Ontop was a large red button, which, when pressed, caused the fountain to shake and split down its radius. Kirby watched with wide eyes as it moved and shook, beginning to look like a piece of pie with one slice taken out.  
    Beneath that 'one missing slice' was a stairwell, dimly lit, with leaves here and there on its steps. Meta Knight continued down it without a word, Kirby quickly toddling after.  
    The walk down the stairs took forever, and it honestly made him anxious. Was this here the entire time? It was actually sorta spooky.. Eventually, the two came to a very, very, very large metal elevator. It seemed pretty pristine and clean.. But why was it so big? It's like the entire population of Pupupuland could fit on this thing.  
    The descent down didn't take as long as the stairs did. The elevator rattled on occasion, but was generally pretty fine. After that ended, and the two were at their destination..  
    "Poyo!"  
    Kirby looked at the structure through the elevator's receding chain-link doors. rushing out as soon as possible. A gigantic room with one thing in it; a ship. A huge ship. A  _war_ ship. Darkly colored, colored like space, with Meta Knight's mask at its front.. It was strangely shaped, but Kirby wasn't about to judge. It had guns and stuff on it, he could see them from down here.  
    "This is the Halberd. It finished its construction a few days ago."  
    Meta Knight informed, not focusing on it. Sword and Blade were actually down here too, loading up stuff into the big ship.  
    "That's partially why you're here.. I need to make sure of something."  
    Meta Knight exited the elevator, crossing over to the adjacent wall, where tables of tools and strange things were lined up. Kirby followed intently, watching as Meta Knight took a strange object in his hands, taking it from leaning off the wall.  
    "This," Meta Knight presented the object to Kirby, "is an Air Ride machine."  
    Meta Knight dropped it on the floor, motioning for Kirby to get on.  
    "The Halberd is outfitted with them."  
    Kirby looked down at the machine, seeing its bright metals and yellow markings.. Kirby shook it off, getting onto the strange winged machination like a surfboard. Its engine flickered to life, and it rose.  
    Meta Knight watched Kirby silently as he plapped forward, now holding onto the machine with his nubs. It jerked forward, stopped, then just hovered around. Kirby was pretty pleased, but he wanted to speed this up.  
    Clinging onto it, he willed it to go up, and it did thusly so. He mentally asked it to go forward, to not hit anything, and it sure did listen. Kirby giggled and poyoed as he flew all around the gigantic basement, enjoying something actually legitimately fun. Why would Meta Knight keep this all for himself?? Why only now did he decide to show Kirby it??  
    After a bit of flying, Kirby landed back infront of the knight.  
    "..Good."  
    Meta Knight sounded like he was checking a box off from a checklist when he said that.  
    "Go find as many Cappys as possible. I need a crew."  
    "Poyo?"  
    "We're going to see Nightmare."  
    Kirby took a moment to process what this could mean. Seeing Nightmare.. Why? Wait, a warship.. Weapons.. Things Kirby could use to fly with.. It made sense. They were going to destroy that wretched labyrinthian fortress.  
    "While you're out, get the Warp Star from Kabu. We'll need it to get rid of him."  
    Kirby nodded, grabbing the Air Ride machine once more and hauling it with him onto the elevator. Meta Knight seemed confused, but just let Kirby take the thing anyways. Kirby sure as heck wasn't going to walk all the way to Kabu and then all the way back. Plus, getting people will be easier if he can move faster, right?  
    Totally not an excuse to ride this thing.  
  


* * *

  
  
    Surprisingly enough, people were actually pretty excited to volunteer their hands for this. Going out into space and defeating an evil demon apparently seemed like a pretty fun, exciting, and not at all dangerous thing to do. Fumu and Bun even wanted to go, more than willing to help out Kirby defeat the person who'd abused and used him.  
    Getting the Cappys onto the ship was easy enough, and the debrief Meta Knight gave to his ramshackle crew about what's going to happen was pretty straight to the point. Some chickened out at the whole 'you could potentially lose your life' thing, but most stayed. Real brave of them. Those brave lot got informed on who Nightmare was, how evil he was, etc, and why he needed to be destroyed.  
    After making sure the ship had all the supplies and staff it needed, Meta Knight hit a few buttons and caused the ceiling of the basement to open up into a large, gigantic tunnel to the surface. The stadium-esque lights of the basement shut themselves down, and the ship began its ascent.   
    Kirby and his friends watched from the bridge, watching as they moved up past the ground, and then high above castle Dedede.  
    "Pupupuland looks so small from up here.."  
    Bun observed, watching as the castle and village shrunk and shrunk.  
    "Get in your seats. Now. We're about to go warpspeed."  
    Kirby sorta forgot Sword and Blade were also here. They were so quiet. Only speaking when absolutely needed. Kirby and the others, sure enough, planted themselves in the bridge's weird sitcom-audience esque seats. Sword and Blade eventually joined them, with Meta Knight being the only one left standing up. He pressed a couple buttons on the control panel, and a loud 'whrrr' began before..  
    The feeling of being slingshotted pressed Kirby's head back into his seat. Out of the bridge's window, lights, rainbow, electricity, and quite a spectacular display of all sorts of colors. The ship rumbled and shook, concerning noises of structural integrity suddenly sparking Kirby's nervousness. Would the ship be able to handle this?  
    The entire thing lasted for an agonizing minute, before it eventually did slow. In the distance.. A bright yellow nebula.  
    Everyone brothe a sigh of relief, seeing the ship held its own. The Cappys got out of their seats slowly but surely, Kirby following suit.  
    "We'll arrive at the fortress in a minute or two. Get to your places."  
    Meta Knight commanded, not bothering to look back at his crew. As everyone else shuffled out of the bridge, Kirby, Bun, Fumu, as well as Sword and Blade stayed. Bun definitely seemed the most nervous about this, watching how quickly the enemy approached. Kirby tapped at Bun's hand.  
    "Poyo, yo, whaap.."  
    "Y-Yeah, I have the Warp Star.."  
    Bun pulled it out from his stylish hair, brushing it with his thumb as he held it out infront of him. Satisfied, Kirby smiled, then headed off to go stand next to Meta Knight.  
    Closer, closer, and closer still..  
    White discs became visible amongst the yellow. Destrayas, no doubt.. The flying saucers did not appear to shy away from the Halberd, more than happy to come in and shoot at it. Though, the shots, strangely enough, didn't seem to be physically damaging the ship.  
    "They're shutting down the ship's systems..!"  
    Sword informed, pressing buttons on his own console, quickly tipping and tapping.  
    "E-Everything is lagging, I-I.."  
    Sword kept smashing for response, before eventually.. 'BWING', a sound that accompanied a bright purple forcefield, which tinted the bridge's window. Everyone in the room, save for Meta Knight, brothe a sigh of relief.  
    "Shield's up.. Blade.."  
    Sword pointed to his cohort, like he's some sort of actor waiting for his cue to go onstage. Blade didn't wait, doing something on his own console. It was pretty clear as to what; the guns on the ship's bow began to move, facing the still-firing Destrayas.  
    With lasers of red, the Halberd's guns blasted through the enemy Destrayas like they were nothing. It was sorta anticlimatic to not hear any explosions, but uh.. It's space. No sound and all.  
    One by one, the discs exploded, and the Halberd drew closer and closer to one of the fortress's many closed entrances.  
    "Getting a call.."  
    Sword informed, looking to Meta Knight for approval.  
    "I don't want to hear smarmy shade's angry tangent about blowing up his frisbees."  
    Uh.. Who? Kirby was a tad bit confused.  
    "Rejecting it, then.. Blade, open the door for us."  
    Blade nodded at the other knight's request, training the laser canons on the firmly shut entry way. The metal melted after a good couple moments under the high powered lasers. As the Halberd flew through the hole it made..  
    Kirby felt like this was the point of no return.


	10. Day 974

    The process of burning down doors continued onwards until the Halberd was deep within the fortress. It was awfully quiet except for the ship's hum and the general uncomfortable shuffling of the people who stayed in the bridge. Fumu was staring out in wonder at what laid beyond the bridge's windshield, whilst Bun glued himself to his braver sister.  
    Kirby himself was helping Meta Knight figure out where to go, since the puff knew the layout well— even though he hated it. Just then, a call began to ring. Meta Knight gave a side-eye over to Sword, expecting the knave to already know what to do.  
    "..It's an internal call."  
    Sword pressed a few buttons and a holograph projection displayed itself on the windshield. There was Kawasaki with a rather cold look on his face. Behind the weird blue blob chef was the Halberd's kitchen. Wonder what the problem is.  
    "We got some stowaways."  
    Kirby always though Kawasaki's accent was weird. Where the guy got a British accent from is anyone's guess. Uh, regardless, Kawasaki reached off screen to grab at something, which he promptly yanked into the camera's view.  
    "Ow, ow-"  
    Grabbed and pulled by the mustache, Escargon seemed rather hesitant to be on camera.  
    "Dedede's here too."  
    Dedede's just too big and strong to be forced to go anywhere, which is why he wasn't on cam.  
    "..Whatever."  
    Meta Knight shrugged, uncaring. Yeah, it didn't really matter if there were stowaways so long as they weren't like.. Trying to blow up the ship or anything. Escargon and Dedede weren't the types to commit such acts of explosive violence, so.. Yeah, the threat level's pretty low.  
    "Dock the ship over by that doorway."  
    Meta Knight commanded, terminating the call himself. Sword pressed a few buttons and the ship drifted off to the side of the hexagonal metal hallway, parking by an outcropping of steel that seemed to be specifically made for ships to load or let people off of it.  
    Sword grabbed and turned on the microphone attached to his console.  
    "Prepare to disembark."  
    Kirby could hear the intercoms from the Halberd's outer hallways echo what Sword had said. Kirby nodded and went to head towards to door, but.. Then Blade snapped his fingers at him.  
    "Poy?"  
    Kirby approached, looking towards the knight with some level of curiosity. Blade looked through the hidden compartments of his armor before pulling out a box. A box of matches. Blade pulled one out from the carton and lit it, having its red end catch flames.  
    Blade put the burning match infront of Kirby's face. It took a solid second for Kirby to realize what Blade wanted Kirby to do here, but he got it. Opening his mouth, Kirby ate the match whole, then swallowed.   
    A transformation sequence later, Kirby had a crown of flames upon his head. Blade, satisfied, put his matches back and focused again on his screen.   
    "Kirby! Hey! Wait up!"  
    Fumu suddenly called, dragging her brother behind her as she caught up to Kirby. After a patient (and somewhat anxious) walk down to the exit bay of the ship, Kirby felt a new swath of determination flow over him. His friends.. All the Cappies of Pupuland, Fumu, Bun.. He was doing this for them. Now, he was doing this to protect them.  
    Kirby himself didn't need to pick up a bomb, all of them were being picked up by Kawasaki and a few other Cappys. The plan.. Plant them everywhere where there was a possible structural integrity.  
    "I wonder where everyone is?"  
    Fumu wondered out loud, looking out past the Halberd, down the empty hall.  
    "We haven't seen anyone in here at all."  
    "Yeah, lets hope it stays that way.."  
    Bun mumbled, the siblings sticking close to Kirby's side as they disembarked. Awfully quiet. The general shuffle and movement of Cappys was really the only thing that could be heard beside the whirring of the Halberd. Along with the crackle of the flames on Kirby's head. The point here being; the fortress itself wasn't making much noise. All the sound came from its intruders.  
    As soon as they'd entered the actual hallway, Kirby felt a rush of nostalgia. Looking at the walls, the floor with a glass center.   
    There's another familiar element here too; CS's metal hands. Though this time they weren't grabbing at Kirby to stop him from hurting himself, or hugging Nightmare. No, this time, they were actually aimed to maim.  
    This was nicely found out when one appeared from the wall before anyone could react and sliced through one of the bags of bombs that had been brought into the hallway. Apparently its fingers were so sharp that it not only ripped through the bag, but through the bombs themselves as well.  
    More and more appeared, violent and ready to destroy any hopes of annihilation. Kirby, more than apt, used his fire ability like a flamethrower; melting through the metal noodle arms until they could no longer supply electricity to the rest of the appendage. Kirby seared off hands left and right, Meta Knight helping as well with the use of Galaxia— when exactly Meta Knight got off the ship was a mystery.  
    This 'protect the escort' quest continued until the bombs were all placed. The hands weren't the only opposition they faced; random corridors would shut themselves with blast shield metal doors, which took both Meta Knight and Kirby working on them for a relatively long time (compared to the hands). Kirby, exhausted by the end, looked like he was on the brink of flopping over from the exertion. Bun recognized this, catching Kirby in his hands before Kirby had a chance to hit the floor.  
    "Back on the ship, we're done here."  
    Meta Knight sheathed his sword, giving a quick side glance to Kirby. Bun held the warm Batamon close, like that'd help his wheezing fatigue. Once they got back on the ship he'd probably get some water or something..  
    The way back was a confusing one, to say the least. Thank goodness Kirby was able to point them back to their ship, or else they probably would've been lost forever (the placement of certain bombs helped with getting back as well).  
    Though.. As they headed back..  
    "D-Demon!"  
    Bun suddenly cried, hiding behind his sister and clinging to Kirby even tighter. Sure enough, blocking the way was a gigantic red demon. A full grown adult monster, fully capable of rending all the intruders incapable with a simple breath.  
    Ice Dragon.  
    Kirby's eyes went wide with recognition, and for some reason he felt some pangs of sympathy in his heart for the detestable thing. Perhaps it's the innocent facade it gave off in its face; confusion and curiosity. Kirby was too tired to do anything, he couldn't defend his friends.  
    Was this the end? Would they all be frozen then live the rest of their lives in a block of ice?  
    No, apparently not. Meta Knight, quick to the draw, got Galaxia out once more. With absolutely no hesitation, the sword glowed brilliantly before he swung, causing a silver sword beam to shoot out of the blade. It sliced through Ice Dragon, diagonally, like the creature was made of butter. It cut through some parts of the metal floor behind it as well.  
    Ice Dragon stalled and went pale, before one half of it (the top half) slid off the bottom. There was no gore; the inside of Ice Dragon was nothing but static. After that, electricity crackled between its two separate parts and caused an explosion. When everything settled, there was no proof of the demon even existing in the first place except for a singe.  
    Kirby couldn't help but feel guilty. He isn't sure why, but.. Just because the demon came from Nightmare doesn't mean it was automatically bad by association, right? Oof, he doesn't wanna think about this complicated stuff right now.  
    Looking around at the other faces, everyone seemed to be on a different page. Other than Dedede, Escargon, and Bun.  
    The eventual load back into the Halberd was spent in anxious silence. All the bombs were placed, and all the opposition was relatively destroyed.. Except for Nightmare.  
    As Kirby and his friends went back to the bridge, it seemed like Meta Knight recognized this too.  
    "Before we can blow anything up.. Nightmare needs to be destroyed. Or else he'll just rebuild, and this will be for nothing."  
    Meta Knight aired, getting a concerned look from Bun and a determined look from Fumu.  
    "Kirby," Meta Knight stared directly at the orb with a commanding look, "get onto the deck."  
    With no needed explanation, Kirby nodded, and did as he was told. He was, of course, trailed by the worried Bun. Kirby knew it was just best to let Bun follow him, since no amount of deterrence ever worked on the kid.  
    The outside deck was the place where all the guns on the ship were. Why Meta Knight wanted Kirby out here was beyond him, but Kirby's not here to question it. He's just here to look ahead, see the hallways.  
    Quiet.. Very quiet.  
    As the Halberd moved forward, unopposed, they floated through hexagonal hallways, square ones, ones that had a void at their bottoms.. If it weren't for Bun being out here with him, Kirby might've fallen asleep during the trip.  
    Bun hugged onto Kirby idly, squishing him at times like the puff was some sort of stress ball.. Kirby wishes he could do the same. He needed something to squish right about now; Bun wasn't the most squishable thing ever.  
    After what seemed to be forever, something appeared down the hallway. Nightmare. The yellow caped fully horned menace himself. He appeared to be working on some paneling, fixing wires and what not. Beside him, staring the ship down with a less than pleased look, was CS on a gigantic television screen. Both of these men dwarfed the ship considerably.  
    "They're here, sir."  
    CS's voice echoed down the hallway, his arms clearly crossed. Nightmare startled, closing up the panel he was working on, hurriedly. After that, Nightmare began a swift approach over to the Halberd. That flowing yellow cape, the starscape it held.. A warm nostalgia washed over Kirby.  
    "H-Hello. CS told me you were in h-here.. That you um, blew up the Destrayas and busted your way in.. A-And planted bombs."  
    Nightmare's messing with his hands. He clearly knew what Kirby and his friends were here to do.  
    "W-We don't have to end this with violence..! You can um.. Just tell me w-what you want from me, and I-I'll make it for you! For free!"  
    Did CS not tell Nightmare about who exactly was on this ship? Guess not. And since Nightmare was so big, he couldn't see Kirby or Bun on the ship's deck.. Geez, Nightmare was like.. At least fifteen times the size of the ship.  
    An answer to his question came in the form of the Halberd's guns charging then firing directly into that open cape of his. It didn't seem to affect him, the lasers simply going off into the black expanse.   
    "A-Alright, um, I-I guess you don't trust me at this size, here let me just.."  
    Nightmare shrunk as soon as the canons stopped firing at him. Now he was only twice the ship's size. Yeah, big difference, thanks. Nightmare looked like he was squinting. Kirby felt Bun squish him more, anxious.  
    "M-Meta..?"  
    Nightmare questioned, before another laser fired into his cape again. This one particular shot had a lot of recoil, making the ship jiggle and rock. It wasn't an ordinary jiggle, though. This.. This was enough to toss someone overboard. Kirby managed to keep himself from falling because he could just puff up, but Bun wasn't as lucky.  
    Bun was left to scream and topple off the ship's deck. He couldn't even grab onto its side. Nightmare gasped and his hand shot out, grabbing Bun before he could fall to the hallway's bottom.  
    Kirby could hear Bun's yells for help as Nightmare brought him back up, and grew furious. How dare Nightmare even lay so much as a finger on Bun. How dare Nightmare think he could ever do anything like that to Kirby's friends. How dare he.  
    Kirby heard the canons nearby charging once more. For another shot. Kirby flew up to the main canon with sudden adrenaline and vigor. He rushed under the canon's barrel, and held his breath. The fire on the top of his head crackled loudly before exploding into a gigantic ploom. The force from the fire shifted the gun ever so slightly up, so when it fired..  
    Nightmare screeched in sudden agony when a hole was seared through his miserable face. Kirby could tell it was burning from the way his metal lit up. Bright yellows and reds of clearly melting steel. Like molten lava, it dripped off his expression.  
    With Bun in tow, Nightmare fled directly backwards. Loud whines whittled into soft nothingness as he retreated. The Halberd went to follow, when suddenly the engines roared in exasperation. Gigantic metal hands, sourced from the white walls of the hallway, grabbed and clawed the ship. They ripped the canon's barrels off like they were nothing but mere tinfoil. Kirby felt the hull shaking and heard the loud tearing of metal.  
    Kirby fell back onto the deck, squabbling to keep hold as CS's gigantic television dropped down infront of the ship's front.  
    "The customer may be right, but you certainly aren't right for committing assault."  
    CS sounded like he was about to maim someone, but had to keep it behind a nice smile. Like, holy geez, Kirby had never heard the man so mad in his entire life. And it's directed at him too..  
    Kirby shuddered.  
    Suddenly, the crackle of some sort of ship audio system piped up.   
    "And I guess it's perfectly fine for a war criminal to commit thousands of genocides without any consequence, then. Not to mention turn it into a profit and sell demons to war-torn planets as exploitation."  
    Meta Knight's voice came over it. CS's television glitched. His face twitched and spazzed before turning into just a regular, angry face. With no leadup, gigantic metal skewers punctured the ship. Two of them, to be precise. Kirby could tell that this happened because he saw the tips of them come out of the deck. They withdrew as quickly as they came, and the Halberd unsteadily wavered.  
    More skewers, this time meant to hold the ship in place. They came horizontally, puncturing though the long hull and parts of the ship's rounder base. Sure enough, the Halberd was still. The engines sputtered like a dying putt putt.  
    "You're very lucky I'm so merciful."  
    CS hissed, his television retracting back into the ceiling whence it came.  
    ...  
    Okay, what now.  
    "Blade, the Air Ride machine, please."  
    Meta Knight sounded like he was talking away from the microphone. A couple seconds later, part of the ship's dock unlocked and pushed a— big shock here— Air Ride machine into Kirby's view via platform. Ready for action. Kirby didn't need to be told.  
    He got on, got it off the ground, and shot off in the same direction Nightmare had left. His grey nubs held on for dear life, because he was really pushing this machine to its limits in regards to speed. He was going to get Bun back. He needed to. Who knows what Nightmare could possibly be doing to him right now.  
    The frantic search was made small by the sheer velocity Kirby went. He searched everywhere, everywhere Nightmare could've possibly flown in that amount of time, and he was more than happy to find him hovering in an empty room off the sides of the main hall. It was large, rectangular, and white. Like some sort of isolation chamber.  
    The flames on Kirby's head crackled as he stared down Nightmare, still holding Bun. Bun looked a lot calmer, but.. Still.  
    The room suddenly shifts. No longer is it a plain box, instead it's a soft, pastel, cloudy area. Nightmare gently put Bun down in the clouds, and Kirby flew over to the child without a second thought.   
    "Kirby-"  
    "K-Kirby, I.. You're grey.."  
    Nightmare cut Bun off, and Kirby shot him a glare. The demon sorcerer backed off to give Kirby and his friend some adequate space. Bun waited for a moment before starting again.  
    "I don't think Meta Knight has been telling us the exact truth about this guy.."  
    Bun whispered words of pure brain washed jibber-jabber. Meta Knight was telling the absolute truth. Nightmare was a demon that needed to be destroyed before he could obliterate the galaxy. Nightmare's ruthless, evil, and irredeemable. No amount of faking an anxious attitude would ever change that. No amount of crocodile tears is going to bring anyone back.  
    "I really think he's sorry. We should try to compromise with him somehow. Meta Knight and everyone else, if we just tell them we destroyed Nightmare, they'd believe us. We don't actually have to hurt him!"  
    Bun was giving mercy to someone who would never even think of returning it.  
    "Nightmare, sir, how do we get out of this cloud place?"  
    Bun turned to the sorcerer, grabbing Kirby's nub, only for Kirby to rip it away.  
    "Kirby, what's wrong?"     
    Kirby shot Bun a glare before opening his mouth. With a breath out, Kirby spewed a jet of fire directly at the demon. He kept it going, and going, and going and going. It all went into his cape, no matter where Kirby tried to aim.   
     Fatigue struck him after only a couple seconds of this attack.  
     The flames pittered out as Kirby coughed and hacked, falling over uselessly. His firery crown expelled smoke and turned into it, leaving him without an ability. His eyes struggled to stay focused, then struggled to stay open. Bun was talking at him about something, and then Nightmare was talking as well. Kirby didn't care, didn't listen, and simply.. Fell asleep.  
    His dreams were black, serene, and peaceful.   
    For a moment.  
    The next, Kirby was in a space of blues and dark purples, surrounded by food. He wiggled over to a gigantic, beautiful red apple, clinging to it. It felt like heaven, just holding onto it.  
    "Is this.. Kirby's dream?"  
    "I.. I-It's hard to explain, but, um, yes.. Yes it is.."  
    Bun then Nightmare's voice rung out in the space. Both of which echoed, but one much moreso than the other. Suddenly, the apple poofed from Kirby's nubs, leaving Kirby just hovering. He felt pained, to have such a great apple disappear from his grasp. Kirby curled in on himself, whining due to the fruit's absence.  
    "Kirby!"  
    Bun called, making Kirby open his eyes. Kirby focused on something. Something glinting from Bun's hair.. The Warp Star. The.. Something clicked in Kirby's mind. He didn't know what. It's like some knowledge was granted to him by The Stars themselves, because Kirby was about to do something very, very illogical.   
    He begun to inhale.   
    Bun let out a startled cry as he was sucked towards Kirby, only for him to be blocked by Nightmare's attentive hand. What wasn't stopped, however, was the Warp Star. Which flew out of Bun's hair and into Kirby's mouth.   
    The sudden power was overwhelming. The cosmos themselves shifted into bright ribbons of green, wrapping around a void of black and giving it feasible, touchable shape. A short rod, which, at the end, was a bright shining blue star.  
    Nightmare recoiled and hissed, holding the sides of his head like the sight of this object was giving him a migraine. Bun took note and swam over to Kirby as fast as he could, trying to prevent whatever was going to happen next.  
    "Kirby, please..! Please don't do this! Please!"  
    Nightmare pleaded.  
    Kirby didn't care.  
    He swung the rod in a circular motion, blue stars following behind it. Like it was some sort of charging attack, the stars crackled with light and energy inside of their circle. Before Bun had a chance to shove Kirby from his attack, Kirby swung the Star Rod once more, causing an entire barrage to shoot out from the circle's center.  
    The twinkling attacks wrapped around Nightmare's form like a tornado, trapping him as howled in agony. Head tossed upward, Nightmare screamed and screamed. Screamed so horribly that Kirby cringed, and even felt ever so slightly sympathetic. Bun clung tightly to Kirby, horrified by the sight and sound of the dying demon.  
    Nightmare's body glew, then flashed white, so white that it was all Kirby could see.  
    Then the dream was over, and the three were back in the cloudy place. Nightmare wheezed and looked like he was about to topple over. Red sparks danced along his image. He truly sounded like he was suffering through his last moments of being alive. Just as Kirby had wanted.  
    "K-Kirby! What did you do!?"  
    Bun demanded, loudly, looking to Kirby for answers. Honestly? Kirby wasn't exactly sure what he'd done either. Nightmare wheezed and whimpered pitifully before he finally managed to talk.  
    "I-I'm going to d-disappear.."  
    He muttered, getting Bun's attention.  
    "Disappear..?"  
    "H-He shot me with m-my weakness.. The Star Rod.."  
    The Star Rod.. What a creative name.  
    "No, Nightmare, wait-"  
    "P-Please just.. Listen.. I'm true to my n-name.. Nightmare.. So long as there's f-fear in your hearts, I will live.. O-One day I will return.. So there's no need to cry over me. M-My disappearing here is.. Just due punishment."  
    Nightmare stalled as a gigantic shock crackled along him. He gasped and huffed again before continuing.  
    "Child.. W-What is your name..?"  
    "Bun.."  
    "Bun.. T-Take care of Kirby, please.. Make sure he s-stays happy, please.. If he's h-happy, I will be too.. T-That's all I ask. Will y-you..?"  
    A horrible shudder goes through Nightmare, and Bun stammers.  
    "Y-Yes.."  
    He clung to the angry orb.  
    "ThaaaaAAAAAAAAAAA **AAAAAAAAA** -"  
    Nightmare was going to thank Bun, but dissolved into screaming as his body literally begun to dissolve. Light sparked at the edge of his cape and ate its way upwards towards his face. Kirby and Bun watched it all. Listened as Nightmare's voice twisted and distorted, watched as he became less and less as the seconds passed. Watched how he spasmed in fatal suffering.  
    They watched as he became nothing. They listened as his voice cut out. They saw the dream-like cloudy space dissipate.  
    Bun and Kirby loaded up onto the Air Ride machine. Bun did it robotically, jaw hanging open as if he was going to say something. He never did. The trip back to the Halberd was spent in absolute silence.   
    The Halberd was still where it was before. Hadn't moved at all.   
    Kirby landed and left the Air Ride machine on the deck, taking Bun with him up to the bridge. Everyone was again crammed up there, and when Kirby entered, they looked at him with wide eyes. Bun looked around, almost dazed.  
    "Poyno Ma!"  
    Kirby cried out, raising his nub up in victory. The room exploded into cheers. Cheers, which, Kirby didn't doubt, reverberated around the entire fortress with how loud they are. Cheers, cheers, happiness, an ushering of new peace and-  
    "We can't escape anymore."  
    Meta Knight cut in, suddenly.  
    "W-We're all going to die here. The stab wounds in the ship have made it incapable!"  
    Sword said, holding the sides of his helmet in a overflow of nervousness.   
    "A-All the oxygen would flow out if we tried, and Popstar's nine hundred lightyears away! She w-wouldn't be able to take another warp speed without tearing us to shreds, and the guns are all torn off so we can't defend o-ourselves from pirates and-"  
    Sword went off listing a bunch of other things, but Kirby wasn't paying much attention. He got the point. The Halberd is in no position to fly anymore. There's no way out. They're all doomed. Etc, etc.  
    "We can use the things stabbing the ship as bridges to the walls, and chances are there's another like, docking station there, right?"  
    Fumu spoke up, dly tapping at her chin.  
    "Holy Nightmare is a demon transporting facility, and we have a transporter at home. If we find a transporter somewhere in the hallways, we can use it and teleport everyone back home!"  
    "..Ugh."  
    Meta Knight groaned, almost dissapointed that someone had figured out a way to get back.  
    "Y-Yeah, that'll work. Everyone, go get onto the needles stabbing the ship!"  
    Yeah, Kirby's just gonna go back onto the deckand take the Air Ride machine again, thanks. Whilst everyone fumbled to get out, Meta Knight followed Kirby back onto the deck. Geez, lots of walking back and forth here.  
    Meta Knight got onto the machine with Kirby, but before they could take off..  
    "Kirby, call that television guy over. What's his name."  
    "Poyo.. CS?"  
    The ceiling creaked, and a blank, empty television dropped down unceremoniously. It faced directly downwards, and swayed from the slight forcefulness of its descent. It was completely off. Kirby felt a pang of guilt when he saw that. Saw how CS was affected by this event.. The lifelessness of his screen was..  
    Hard on Kirby's heart.  
    The machine took up into the air, and Meta Knight spoke. It wasn't to Kirby.  
    "You should be happy! You have more job opportunities to explore now that your boss is  _dead_!"  
    Kirby nearly gasped from the yell. Meta Knight.. Dear Stars, not even Kirby would say that! Yeah, he hated Nightmare, but saying that to CS!? He didn't deserve that! Okay, maybe he did since he was an associate of Nightmare, but.. That was way too harsh. Way, way too harsh.  
    Pure silence. Then the screen flicks on. It weakly strains itself up, twitching, showing its contents to the flying orbs. Static. Pure static. The ship below was now being pierced even more. Much moreso in the base. Pierced like a pincushion.  
    A loud screaming comes over the intercoms. It's not a normal scream; it's computerized, and much more staticy than anything that could ever hope to come out of a creature with flesh. It was overshadowed, for a moment, by the noise of the Halberd exploding. Then, as the engines stopped their detonation, the screaming returned to it's rightful place of 'currently the loudest thing'.   
    Unsatisfied with the fact that only the ship had exploded, the spikes now aimed for a smaller target; Kirby and Meta Knight. The spike's relative huge size and speed made it impossible to dodge. The first spike that hit the machine took it down, ripping off one of its wings in the process. The machine's spiral downwards would've been accompanied by Kirby and Meta.. If it weren't for the fact Kirby could float to safety.  
    Chased and bashed by the spikes, Kirby had been thoroughly poked at by the time he'd joined the remaining crew on the nearest platform. CS's screaming had still not stopped. There wasn't any time to waste. They needed to get out of here before CS did something that ended all of them.  
    The minor hallway provided no shelter from CS's attacks. In fact, it just brought more and more to them. Those metal hands were no longer aiming for bags, but rather, for flesh. They lacerated the intruders relentlessly, despite Meta Knight's sword beams defending them. Kirby looked back to see King Dedede was probably going to be the one going home with the most amount of scars.  
    The claws aimed for throats, and ripped and tore into any skin they could get their elongated fingers on. Kirby almost felt like he would've gotten his eyes stabbed out if it weren't for Meta Knight's quick actions with Galaxia.  
    Every single hall they ran down had these hands. Some halls, however, were special and had something else other than hands. Some had guns. Some guns would fire bullets, some fired lasers. Some halls had buzzsaws, some had flamethrowers. Other halls fired darts of all things. From the looks of it, the darts were like.. Glass? The halls with darts were the ones least effective; literally no one got hit from them when Kirby checked. He could've sworn he felt the pricks of the needles on his squishy body, but.. When he checked, there was nothing there. So.  
    Kirby was sure he lead everyone in the right direction with where he was running. He couldn't afford to stop. Not even when CS literally shot acid or electricity at him and his friends. Not even when the spikes returned, trying to impale.  
    "What was that about assault?"  
    Meta Knight spoke, somewhat breathless from all the running.  
    CS's screaming distorted and only crackled louder. More ear-bleeding. An indistinguishable, perfect mix between the screeching of someone in overflowing sadness and bloodlusting rage.  
    This mad dash continued for much longer than it should've. It was lengthened by CS throwing down huge blast doors and trying to impede them for whatever reason, but failing to do so thanks to Galaxia. By the time Kirby and friends had gotten to a transport room, Kirby felt like he was going to reverse explode and become a singularity. Definitely not a fun feeling to have. Also he's got cuts and burns of literally all types all over him, so that's fun.  
    Everyone else must've felt the same, because the loud wheezes of exhaustion only just barely overshadowed the noise of the transport room's doors slamming closed and locking. Even Meta Knight had got all his breath taken out of him and laid on the floor like a useless lump, barely gripping onto Galaxia.   
    The room was actually rather small, pentagon-like in shape. One side of the room held the big teleporting machine itself, the other had a bunch of wall-lining consoles with a bunch of knobs and switches.  
    Kirby's entire body twitched from the exertion, and he just wanted to sleep again. Everything stung, everything hurt, he was so tired, and adrenaline had been all but drained. He felt like this was a safe place.. Until he heard the vents make a soft 'psshh' noise. Dreary and blurry eyed, Kirby coughed in alarm. He already felt nauseous, but now a headache was kicking in too.   
    "P-Poison, poison gas..!"  
    Sword coughed and forced himself up, running to the consoles.  
    "P-p-ppphossphiiine, t-to-o be prre... ciiis-s-seee.."  
    CS's voice.. It didn't sound right. It sounded like his audio was lagging, like he was glitching and having a hard time talking. It sent chills down Kirby's imaginary spine.   
    Kirby heard Sword's cry of alarm as the console's controls shocked him.   
    "B-Blade! Help! Help me!"  
    Sword coughed more, his partner staggering up to go and assist. Blade had grabbed his namesake, slicing open the consoles insides to force it to work. Grabbing at wires, at whatever technical gore was inside of those machines and forcing it to come to life, all while being shocked.  
    It took two minutes before explosion of light and life from the transport machine made CS's screams become pure whitenoise. The struggling Cappys hefted themselves onto the machine along with Dedede, Escargon, Bun, Fumu, all of them. Meta Knight staggered to his feet, and made his way over to Kirby. No words, he simply handed Kirby a small, rectangular box with a single red button on it.  
    Sword and Blade ran to the transporter, and Meta Knight had exchanged places with them. He worked his magic, and the machine started up. CS's screaming felt like it was going to burst Kirby's eardrums.   
    "I'LL M-MAAAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS!"  
    CS shrieked over the static. Meta Knight didn't care about this threat, and simply pushed the button to start up the teleportation. More crackling. Everything is just so loud. Kirby's gonna need hearing aids after all of this is done.  
    Meta Knight grabbed Kirby's nub as he rushed back to the machination. Kirby felt like, now, he should press the button he held. So, he did. A soft click, and distantly, the sound of explosions followed.   
    "YOU'LL PAY, Y-YOU'LL ALL PAY AND THE PR-"  
    CS was cut off by the sound of Kirby being whisked away. Whisked away by the machine's light and softer noises, being teleported away from the screaming fortress. Away from CS using the intercoms with the volume all the way up. Now, he was in a tunnel of cybernetic yellows. Like going through warp speed again, but with less of the whole 'oh geez is the ship going to fall apart' thing.  
    Kirby watched as the 'hole' where he'd come from disappeared. No way to go back.  
    It'd been destroyed.  
    The contrast was staggering between this tunnel of light and the fortress. The soft, ocean-like noises, the only somewhat loud coughs and gasps from the Cappys and knaves.. Kirby's mind was brazen, still rushing with the thoughts of what happened, and his body violently shook once more as he truly registered what he'd been through.  
    The agony from all his injuries set in here, and he cried and sobbed with terrible physical pain.  
    The trip back to the castle was short. Everyone toppled out of the teleportation machine like a bunch of balls falling out of a bag with a hole in it. Kirby was the last to fall out, landing ontop of the more than battered Dedede.  
    Through his pain, his agony.. To be honest, he was happy. Happier than anything had ever made him before.


End file.
